


The Imaginary Number (3rd Person POV Edition)

by enigmaticEditor



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Rewrite, F/F, Gen, Happy Ending, Multi, Roxas is Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Suicidal Thoughts, Trans Female Character, Trans Xion (Kingdom Hearts), What-If, along with just. general poly vibes all around because that's how i do, and also it makes so much more sense fight me nomura, because sometimes you need slightly fewer of these little blonde bitches, but no more than what was probably going through her mind in 358/2, god knows xion deserves it, her canon ending was alright but like... hold my beer, let's be real that's canon, the sorikai is not the focus but is definitely there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:55:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22097491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enigmaticEditor/pseuds/enigmaticEditor
Summary: That penultimate boss fight in 358/2 Days sure was a pain, huh. What if Xion had won it, and taken over as Sora's Nobody?In which I reach into KH canon and swap a few wires around (and cram a few new wires in) to make things just a little bit better. Mostly for Xion, but for everyone else too.The original version of this fic, foundhere, is in 2nd Person POV. I personally feel that it's better like that, but I also understand that many (including me, if I hadn't been the one to write it) would find it difficult to read, so I've converted it to 3rd.
Relationships: Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Naminé/Xion (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 33





	1. Sunset

Xion hadn’t wanted to win. 

With what little control she’d had, she’d stayed her hand at critical moments. She’d moved just a little slower than Xemnas wanted. She’d telegraphed every attack, hoping Roxas would be smart enough to dodge. But it wasn’t enough. 

He’d lasted a long time. But Xion’s power had only just begun to wane, and his was exhausted. Back at the clock tower, in a monstrous armored form, she watched helplessly as Xemnas seized full control and struck down her friend. He fell, his body breaking on the flagstones. Screaming within the prison of her own mind, Xion saw him disintegrate. Like all Nobodies. Like all the Dusks she’d slain. But there was something different this time. As Roxas’s body crumbled into scraps of shadow, something bright and shimmering left his form and spiraled into the sky… and then towards her, as if caught in a gravity well. 

It was unmistakable. It was a _heart_. 

He’d had a heart. 

HE’D HAD A HEART. 

Rage consumed Xion in the same instant that Roxas’s heart joined… _hers._ Her heart. She had one too. Of course she did. How could anyone have suffered as she had without a heart? 

The full power of the Keyblade hero swept through Xion and broke the chains on her mind. Xemnas took his leave without a single attempt to fight back, releasing the marionette strings. Free of his control, his assumptions, Xion folded back in on herself and landed hard at the base of the clock tower. Where Roxas had vanished. For an instant, she was herself again. A slim, black-haired girl. The _real_ Xion. But then she was Roxas. And then, for a horrible moment, Sora again. And then… someone else? Almost Roxas, but… 

The Nobody pulled her hood over her face to stop the madness. She had no face now. She didn’t deserve one. She’d just killed the only person she’d had left. 

Xion stared into the horizon, into the perpetual sunset of this world. On her mind, and in the heart she now knew herself to have, was vengeance. Nothing more, nothing less. But the target of her mounting fury wasn’t the Organization. Not yet. First came Kingdom Hearts itself. She was going to destroy it. Or absorb it. Maybe she could even become powerful enough to bring him back. To fix everything. 

She extended a hand, the corridor opening to her call. Xion stepped through. 

  


Powerful enemies flocked to her the moment she arrived. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow, yes? She wasn’t sure if someone had said that to her or Roxas or Sora. It was all jumbled together, her memories, their memories, her current emotions, the terror and fear and hurt Roxas had felt during their duel, Sora’s constant whirlwind of feelings, the last stronger than anything she or Roxas had ever experienced. 

Xion slew the shadows besetting her in moments, and only after did she realize she was wielding two Keyblades. And neither of them was the Kingdom Key. 

In her left hand was a beacon of light, winged and starry. Her heart told her it was connected to Kairi, though her brain told her the blade was the one she’d stolen from Roxas. Kairi… the girl whose face she’d taken as her own. Xion supposed she should be grateful to her. Being who she was would have been so much harder if she’d only had male faces in her memory to work with. Unintentionally or not, she’d taken her features and vivid blue eyes and fused them with Sora’s darker complexion. Xion wasn’t sure where her midnight black hair had come from. Maybe that was something unique to her, proof that despite everything she’d been her own person with her own heart all along. 

In her right hand was a grim weapon, trailing smoke and violet sparks. Her heart told her it had to do with Riku, the boy who… he’d been kind, in a way, she thought. But he’d pressured her to return to Sora. That talk with him… it was when everything really started to go wrong for her. When Xion had begun to realize that the universe didn’t want her around, that she didn’t deserve to exist. At first, she’d rejected that. She’d chosen her friends over some boy she’d only seen in memories. But as time wore on, and she began to lose control… Nobodies are resilient, but it wore her down. Xion wasn’t sure when she gained a heart, or if she’d had one from the start. Either way, her second encounter with Riku was when it had started to break, and now it lay in pieces. The razor-sharp splinters dug into her chest with every breath she took. 

Xion mind’s told her that this jagged, brutal Key was hers now, replacing her pale imitation of Sora’s weapon. She thought that was fitting. 

More shadows came after the lone Nobody, larger and stronger in waves, and she cut a swath through them effortlessly. Xion battled her way through this world that never was until she came to a plaza below a skyscraper. She would reach the castle soon. 

She didn’t expect him, but he was ready for her. Or at least, for someone. The boy who blinded himself, lest he open his eyes to see only darkness. 

“Xion,” said Riku. “You need to come with me.” 

“After,” she growled in a voice that wasn’t her own, and shoved him aside. Xion took a few steps, but suddenly he was in front of her again. She blinked. 

“If you go to them, to Kingdom Hearts, they’ll break you. Enslave you. They’ll have everything. And my friend will never wake up.” 

“I’ll kill them all. And I don’t give a _damn_ about your friend.” 

He looked taken aback. Xion wasn’t surprised. Last time she’d spoken to him, she’d been only too willing to fade away. But that was then, and this was now. She’d lost too much to give up what little she had left. If she went now, there’d be no one she cared about left to remember her. No one left to _forget_ her. Except perhaps... no. Xion had failed to do what she asked. 

She walked past him again, and then his voice rang out. “What _about_ Axel?” 

Xion stopped, her heart suddenly heavy in her chest. She was beginning to hate having a heart. “What about Axel?” 

Riku’s sightless gaze burned into her. “Are you going to destroy him too?” 

“…None of your business.” She didn’t know the answer to that. It hurt Xion too much to think about Axel. He might have already been turned into a Dusk for letting her escape twice, for all she knew. 

“He’s your friend. You’d kill him? Or worse, you’d force him to watch you suffer even more?” 

“Shut up, Riku.” She clenched her teeth. 

The Organization imposter continued. “I guess Nobodies really are heartless.” 

She whirled around. “Shut,” Xion raised her twin Keyblades, _“UP.”_ She brought them down, and the clang of his parry reverberated throughout the empty city. The rain began to fall harder as the two of them slashed and dodged and weaved, neither able to gain an upper hand. As ever, Riku was a match for Sora’s power. 

Xion fought like a wild beast. When he tore one of the Keyblades from her hand- the white and golden weapon of light- she felt something inside her break. Her friend hadn’t been quite gone. There had been a little whisper in her head. She hadn’t been alone. 

Now she was, and it was terrible. 

Riku tossed his own Keyblade aside, and the combatants circled each other. Xion shook with fury, looking for the slightest opening. “I’m sorry,” the boy muttered. He didn’t seem to be speaking to her. “I know. It’s my fault. I’ll stop her. Whatever it takes. If you care about her, help me.” 

How _dare_ he? “GIVE HIM BACK!” 

She lunged. Suddenly Riku was gone, and Xion was crossing blades with Roxas once again. He looked as miserable as she felt. When he spoke, it was Riku’s voice, but Xion knew it was Roxas. No one but another Nobody could sound as lifeless as that. “Xion. Please, stop.” 

Xion let her Keyblade drop, the grey hilt slipping out of her hand. It splashed into a puddle before vanishing. 

She fell to her knees and howled. It was a horrid noise, full of rage and despair. The puppet was malfunctioning again, she thought bitterly. Any moment now, Riku would put it out of its misery. She found it hard to care. 

“Xion.” 

She looked up. 

“Take it. It’s yours, isn’t it?” The question didn’t seem to be rhetorical. 

She snatched the proffered Keyblade out of his hand. “No,” Xion hissed. “It’s _his._ ” The whisper returned. “It belongs to Roxas.” 

“It belongs with Sora. As do you.” 

“…Will I be happy? With him?” 

“I can’t say. I’m sorry.” And she knew he meant that. 

The fight drained out of her. She didn’t care anymore. The conviction Xion had felt before her battle with Roxas didn’t return. She didn’t _want_ to disappear. But she no longer had the energy to fight the tides of fate. 

“…Lead the way.” 

  


Oh. It was her. 

Naminé had been good company, in the brief time she had known her. The pale, almost ethereal girl was the first person who had seen Xion, the _true_ Xion, right from the beginning. She’d even known her to be a puppet, a Replica, and she’d had the clear sight and the kindness to cast aside her preconceived notions and see what was really there. She had been honest, unlike so many others in Xion’s short life. 

And Xion had failed her. 

“I’m sorry,” she croaked out, but Naminé lifted a hand. 

"It’s alright,” she said, in that oh-so-gentle voice of hers. “It wasn’t your fault. None of this was your fault, and you deserve better. But a happy ending for you, Xion, is beyond my power to give. I can grant you… something else, something we planned to use to keep Roxas occupied until I was done sorting out Sora’s memories. DiZ is working on adjusting it to suit you.” 

As if summoned by his name, the bandaged man walked in. He glanced dismissively at Xion and Naminé. The former had only spoken to him once, but he clearly hadn’t been fond of Nobodies. And certainly not anyone impeding Sora’s recovery. She’d gotten the sense that Naminé didn’t like him very much, either, but relied on him to keep her safe while she worked on restoring the proper hero of the Keyblade. Xion idly wondered whether he’d care what happened to her after Sora woke up. 

“ _DiZ_ is done. It’s finished throwing a tantrum, then?” he asked. Xion bristled, sparks of anger coming back to her. Saïx and Xemnas had called her _it_ too. So often that she had even begun to believe it herself. But now, as her time was running out, she at least knew who she was. Who Xion was, underneath all the tangled memories. 

She was a _girl_ , dammit. Not _it_ , and definitely not _he_. Unlike everything else about her ludicrous existence, it really wasn’t that complex. 

Too tired to protest, she was just going to let it be. But someone else came to her defense. “She,” said Naminé, pausing ever so slightly after the pronoun, “is ready, yes. Please, DiZ, let me handle this.” 

DiZ rolled his one visible eye and sauntered off somewhere. Xion was too busy staring at Naminé to watch his exit. The strangest thought occurred to her: when Sora woke up, he’d _better_ thank this girl. And, preferably, see her again once he was done gallivanting around the worlds. Frequently, too. 

Xion shook her head to clear it and followed Naminé down the halls of the mansion, finally stopping before a strange computer. Following the witch’s instructions, she stood on a raised platform and waited wordlessly as Naminé moved to the controls. 

“Think of it as… a vacation.” 

“A vacation,” Xion repeated dully. She’d had a vacation once. 

“In the simulation, you’ll be… normal. A normal kid, with normal friends. You won’t remember any of this. And when Sora is ready, we’ll pull you out, and you can join him.” 

Xion heard herself say, “Will you be there?” 

Naminé looked surprised, and then smiled her soft smile. “No. I’m sorry.” 

“ _Could_ you be there?” 

Naminé bit her lip. Xion knew the other girl wasn’t happy here. The way DiZ treated his aide wasn’t much better than the way he treated Xion. And even if it was just a copy of herself… shouldn’t _some_ version of Naminé get to be happy? 

Slowly, the witch of memory shook her head. “Who I am… what I am… even in data form, I’d remember everything. It wouldn’t work.” She sighed. “I wish it would. Forgetting would be easier. I’d hoped to forget about you.” 

Xion recoiled as if struck, and Naminé’s pale eyes went wide. For the first time, her voice came out rapid and panicked. “No, no, I meant… I didn’t…” 

As Xion watched, tears began to bead in her eyes. She was shocked, and then she remembered. Nobodies can have hearts. Of course Naminé had one. 

“I remember… everything,” Naminé choked out. “I don’t just manipulate memory, I _become_ it. I can’t escape it. Everything you and Sora and Roxas and Riku have suffered… I know it, and I can’t forget it. Not for a second. It’s horrible of me, but I was hoping… that just once, I wouldn’t have to remember.” 

It was some time before Xion managed to speak. “It’s okay,” she said, even though she was learning that until just now there had been some parts of her heart that hadn’t broken yet. “I’m… I’m ready.” She wasn’t. 

Kairi’s Nobody looked away and started typing. She had an expression of intense concentration, though Xion wasn’t sure if it was actually needed for the task or if she was just trying to distract herself. A few seconds later, she was done, and gave Xion a long, sad inspection. But all she saw, Xion realized, was a blank hooded figure. 

“Wait,” said the faceless girl. Naminé paused, hand over the controls. There was one final thing Xion wanted to do. She really hoped it would work. 

Lifting her hands, Xion threw back her hood. For a terrible instant, her form blurred, and then to her immeasurable relief it settled. 

She was _Xion_. At this last moment, whether it was through her own strength or through Naminé’s belief in her, her appearance had returned to what she wanted it to be. Her striking blue eyes met Naminé’s lighter ones and Xion managed to smile for the first time since she’d last seen her. But now Xion was going away. Oblivion, though a different sort than she’d been prepared for. At least she had something to look forward to this time, but the cost had been too great. Poor Roxas. 

Xion gave the other girl a nod. Blinking away her tears, Naminé pressed the last button. Xion felt herself deconstructing, her physical form being encoded and destroyed. But at least it was _her_ form. Xion kept her gaze on Naminé until her vision failed and she was left floating in darkness without a body to call her own. 

Her last thought was that having a heart was _awful_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [This](https://zoeshi-bug.tumblr.com/post/186659327896/u-ever-just-love-a-character-with-ur-whole-entire) has been my Xion appearance headcanon since I first saw it a while back. Now I keep getting surprised when I see canon images of Xion and remember that in the games she's only marginally less pale than Naminé, if at all. Well, the purpose of this _is_ to improve on canon, after all.
> 
> Next chapter will be along shortly. It's already written in the other version, I just have to convert it. It's a little more than just swapping pronouns, mind. The original was in 2nd person for a reason, as it allowed me to play with the concept of self and personal identity more directly. Doing that in 3rd is trickier, but it's a fun challenge.


	2. Midnight

Xion dreamed of a red-headed girl, a bit younger than her, and of a brown-haired boy the same age. Both looked kind of like her, she thought. A silver-haired boy was there too, but whether he was friend or foe, she couldn’t quite ascertain. The girl was hurt, and the taller boy was wielding a weapon of some kind, and then everything went dark… 

And she woke up. “Just once,” Xion said to herself, “I’d like to get a decent night’s sleep.” 

Xion shifted to sit up in her bed and drew aside a curtain to look out the window. Keeping it shut, she thought about the things she saw when she closed her eyes as she watched the reddish light refract in the glass. 

Often, in her dreams, she wasn’t herself. She looked out from behind the brown-haired boy’s eyes. And other times, from those of a different, blonde-haired boy. The latter were always the visions that left her waking up with a headache because of how confused they were. Sometimes she even saw herself, alongside a tall man with flaming hair. Xion wasn’t sure whether that descriptor was literal or not. 

But every now and then, interrupting the sequences where she was the blonde boy… things grew fuzzy and an entirely new set of faces ran through her mind. A bulky brown-haired man and a lithe blue-haired woman, both taller than her. “Her,” in this case, being that very same blonde boy. This was all very odd, like the boy was the same actor playing two roles. But after all, they were dreams. Every now and then she saw utter nonsense, like giant mutated animals wearing clothes and floating blue men in a world of sand. 

She’d considered trying to write down the things she saw, once. It might help her get them in order. But when she’d looked around for pens and some paper, she couldn’t seem to find any… and then she’d just gotten distracted, she supposed. Xion got distracted a lot. Her friends sometimes had to physically shake her out of spells where her mind wandered so far away she felt like she might be about to find herself again from the opposite direction. 

And she had weird thoughts like _that_ all the time. Xion sighed. Her friends seemed cheerful enough, constantly planning some new escapade or prank. She liked being around them, she really did, but where did they get the energy? She was always tired even though she felt like she spent half her life asleep. But they were, invariably, glad to see her. She couldn’t help but wonder why. What about her lackluster company did they enjoy? 

Hauling herself out of bed, she started getting dressed. Long sleeved shirt, light gloves, full length pants, vest. All black or gray. Xion didn’t much like showing skin, and some days she wanted a hood to bring over her face, too. She wished the dark clothes would let her hide in shadowy places, but no matter how hard she tried to vanish, people always seemed to spot her and drag her somewhere before she could stew in her own thoughts for too long. 

Xion slunk off to meet her friends. She vaguely recalled having plans today, insofar as there was a today in this town of endless sunset. 

  


She met Hayner, Pence, and Olette in the usual place. They started jabbering away and the dark-haired girl sat on a box and zoned out. 

What had she done yesterday? What was she going to do tomorrow? Why did those feel like the same question but with different answers? 

“Hey. Hey Xion!” She started. It was Olette. “We’re going now! Come with us. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten? It's beach day!” 

Xion had, actually, which seemed bizarre. She’d been looking forward to it, hadn’t she spent all that time working to save money for it? Though, for the life of her, she couldn’t quite recall what it was she’d done… 

“Xion! Come on!” Hayner gave her a friendly shove, and she stood up hurriedly. 

“Sorry, I…” 

Xion stopped. How was she supposed to tell her friends that sometimes she had the uneasy feeling that she was the only real person in Twilight Town… and that she wasn’t sure that even _she_ was real? They’d be insulted, or at least, think she was crazy. 

Maybe they’d be right. 

  


It turned into a horrible day. Or was it multiple days? She couldn’t be sure, in the haze. She’d lost the train money. It had been stolen by some stranger in a black coat, and no one else had seen him. Xion might as well have told her friends that she didn’t think they were real, she already sounded crazy. 

Things were getting stranger. Sometimes the world around her would freeze, and she’d be in either darkness or bright white light. Her memory blanked, and when she found herself back in the place where she’d been when the world had frozen, she felt exhausted. Like she’d been running. Sometimes Xion’s hands tried to reach for things that weren’t there, things that they knew _should_ be there, and she only got more confused. 

While walking down the street with her friends, she spotted a girl in white watching her from a rooftop nearby. Xion stopped and stared. Something in her chest hurt when she saw the girl… her heart? Why did Xion find that idea so strange? 

There was the sound of footsteps on the paved pathway. “Hey.” It was Pence. He’d run back to fetch her. 

Xion pointed at the girl. “Who’s she?” 

There was a long pause. “There’s nothing there, dude,” he said eventually. 

“What?! She’s… right there!” Xion sputtered, looked at him, then looked back at the girl. And she was gone. 

And then Pence wasn’t there. He was down the street, walking alongside his friends. Xion wasn’t there either. She was walking next to them. She promptly stumbled and fell mid-step. 

The trio rushed to pick her back up but didn’t ask what had made her trip. They didn’t say anything at all. All three had a look of benign happiness on their faces, and it didn’t change one bit as they walked onward. To where, Xion didn’t remember. She didn’t remember where they’d all come from, either. 

  


Xion had found a coat with a hood somewhere. It fit perfectly and hid her features. She wandered Twilight Town alone. No one seemed to be around. 

And then someone stepped out to face her. Someone tall, in a black coat. He threw back his hood. 

It was him, the tall red-haired man from her dreams. His hair wasn’t made of literal flames, but something about him gave Xion the distinct impression of a barely controlled inferno. 

“Well, well, well. Here you are at last, _best friend._ ” He didn’t sound very friendly. “Roxas. You’re coming with me. I’m sorry.” 

Weirdly, the apology did seem sincere. But that only confused Xion more. Apparently, this stranger wasn’t after her. Assuming any this was real, of course. She played along, and cautiously removed her hood. “Who’s Roxas?” 

The reaction from the man was one that made Xion realize he _must_ be real. No one could visibly go through that much pain in the space of a few seconds and not be real. He almost fell to his knees but caught himself on a nearby wall at the last moment. 

“You… you _didn’t_ …Roxas…” he gasped out. 

“Didn’t what? And my name is Xion.” 

“You… Roxas… you… _you_ …” 

In a flash, everything was ablaze. Rising over the roar of the flames, the man’s voice cried out, _“WHAT DID YOU DO?”_

The town vanished. The flames vanished. The strange, angry man vanished. And either an eternity or an instant later, Xion was back in her room. She felt very, very sleepy, and keeled over onto her bed. She was out before she hit the mattress. 

  


The next day, Xion felt something calling her to the old mansion hidden away behind the woods. So there she went, with nothing better to do. Once again, the town was empty. The people were nowhere to be found. Her friends were gone. She didn’t feel bad about that. She didn’t feel anything. 

Xion stood before the locked gate, and time froze. When it resumed, she was standing before it, one hand outstretched, and the gate was open. She proceeded onward. 

The inside was strange. Old, but clearly in use by someone. Drawings littered the floor and the walls, but when Xion tried to focus on them, her head swam. She felt like somewhere within her, a dam was about to burst. Already, things were leaking through. She knew that the girl she’d seen was named Naminé. She knew that “Roxas” had been someone she’d once known, and that thinking about him make her hurt. The man who’d confronted her was called Axel. 

And there he was again, facing her down inside a room that suddenly changed to have deep blue metal walls with blinking lights everywhere. Some kind of computer system was in the corner, and the red-haired man stood between it and Xion. 

“Axel,” she said. 

“You remember me this time, then?” he drawled, far more composed than she’d seen him last. “I’m SO FLATTERED.” And once again, flames exploded out of nowhere, surrounding the two of them. Wheels of fire spun at his side, and from them he retrieved… Xion wasn’t sure what they were exactly, but they looked sharp and deadly. "I have to bring you home _again_ , Xion. I can't afford to _hold back_ , so don't worry." 

In response, Xion reached out with both hands. She’d done this before, on instinct, like it was supposed to do something. And this time, it did. In her hands appeared two strange weapons, one light, one dark. 

_Keyblades_ , her mind told her. The answer came as naturally as breathing, and so did the battle-ready position she found herself in. 

“Two…” breathed Axel. He set his piercing eyes on Xion, sharper than before, like he was trying to see through her. “Roxas must still be in there somewhere. Please, Xion… let him out. If I don’t come back with him… they’ll turn me into a Dusk. I didn’t tell them about you. But if they find out… I’m gone.” 

Was this person begging for her help, or threatening her? “I don’t know who Roxas is, Lea.” 

Wait. _Lea?_ Xion didn’t know where that had come from, it had just slipped out. That wasn’t… 

Axel’s jaw dropped, and he choked on his words a few times before getting them out. “How- you- _how did you_ \- who told you?” 

“Lea,” she said again, tasting the word. It sounded weirdly _right_. “Was that your Somebody name?” Wait, what did that mean? Somebody? If he wasn’t somebody, then what was he? 

_“Who told you that?”_

“I…” Xion could feel the tidal wave of memories about to overtake her, but for now she stayed afloat. “You must have told me.” 

“I know I didn’t. There’s only one other person in the Organization who would have cared to remember that, and there’s no _fucking_ way he told you.” 

A spark flared in Xion’s mind, and she recalled something about Axel (or Lea?). Just one thing, but something she was pretty sure he’d said a lot. “So I guess he’s got it-” 

“Don’t you say it,” he spat. “Don’t you…” Then he sagged, and the fire in him and all around him petered out. His odd spiked wheels went up in smoke. “Don’t… don’t… don’t you dare.” 

She was getting some cruel satisfaction out of taunting him like this, and she didn’t know why. But she felt guilty, too. What had this man done to her? Who was he to her? Xion could almost remember, but it kept slipping away… 

Axel didn’t give her the chance to think about it. Darkness rose around him, and she heard him say, “You, me, Roxas… let’s meet again in the next life.” Then the shadows consumed him, and he was gone. 

Something pulled Xion towards the computer in the corner. She approached it, swinging her Keyblades casually. Clearly, she knew how to use them. And staring at the jumble of metal and lights reminded her of something… something that made her sad. And confused. And angry. 

Acting on instinct alone, she raised her weapons and brought them down on the computer. The moment they made contact, everything went dark, and Xion ceased to exist. 

  


She existed again, and a blonde-haired blue-eyed girl clothed all in white was looking at her with concern. 

“Xion?” 

_Naminé_. So Xion was back, her memory was back… and the hurt was back, too. Of course, Naminé had said it was like a vacation. Vacations end. 

And she had almost been happy. 

Well, content. Maybe. 

She hadn’t been actively suffering, anyway. 

When Xion looked at her, her heart- her physical heart- skipped a beat. But no, surely that wasn’t possible, she thought. She might have some pale imitation of a heart, but surely Nobodies can’t- 

Naminé was speaking. “I… I’m sorry, Xion, this must be a lot. I considered speaking to you as the process approached completion but I… couldn’t. It was too much.” 

“It’s okay,” Xion said, her words somehow much louder to her ears than they had been in the datascape. “I saw you once. It didn’t mean much then, but it does now.” 

Naminé smiled faintly. Xion suddenly became aware that the two of them weren’t alone. She turned to find… Riku. In a black coat, lurking by the door. 

She connected the dots. “You bastard,” Xion said, without any real venom in her voice. “We just wanted to go to the beach. Why did you stop us?” 

The boy at least had the decency to look guilty. “I’m sorry. DiZ didn’t have time to program a whole new location. We barely finished before-” 

He was interrupted by a crashing sound from somewhere outside. Once again, as if saying his name called him forth, DiZ’s deep, commanding voice rang out from another room. “They’re here! Riku, defend us. Whatever you have to do, they CANNOT be allowed access to the Chamber. Or the Replica. Naminé, get it to Sora. Wake him _now_. Complete him. Nothing else matters, especially not you two.” 

Xion knew she should definitely be angry about some of that, but she couldn’t muster the energy. Riku was already sprinting away, his face bearing an odd mixture of resignation and relief. “Xion. Please, go to Sora!” he called, and then he was gone. 

Naminé rushed off, and Xion, with an expression matching Riku’s, followed her to a room where a boy floated inside a translucent glass pod. It resembled a flower about to bloom. 

So this was him. Sora. The one they all wanted. 

He looked pleasant enough. A peaceful sleeper, certainly. His shoes were unreasonable, and he absolutely needed new clothes, Xion noticed. He must have kept growing while suspended like this, somehow. Magic, probably. She didn’t want to think about it too hard. 

Wait. Had _she_ grown in the datascape? Xion took stock of herself, carefully. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed. It felt like months… but only a few real hours. 

“Naminé, how long-” 

“Xion, we don’t have time.” She sounded sorry, sincerely sorry, but stressed. She was shaking. 

Xion couldn’t bear to leave her like that. She eyed Sora one last time. The traitorous thought entered her mind that she could probably still turn the tables on him. Absorb _him_. This could be her story, if she wanted it to be. 

She didn’t. Xion was so, so tired. It was her turn to sleep. “Naminé? Thank you. For everything.” 

Holding back a sob, the other girl (who now that Xion looked, and she was seizing the opportunity to look while she could, had definitely grown since she’d seen her last) extended a hand. And faltered. 

Naminé stood like this for some time, still and perfect as a statue, one palm facing Xion. Both of them jumped at the sound of a scream of rage and pain from Riku, echoing throughout the mansion. 

“Do it, Naminé.” 

“I’ll… I’ll see you later, Xion.” 

And then she was being ripped apart. It wasn’t like the digital deconstruction. This was unimaginably painful, Xion could feel her memory and mind and heart unraveling. It felt like dying. That was, she acknowledged dully as agony overwhelmed her, undoubtedly because she was, in fact, dying. 

At least her personal Grim Reaper was cute as hell. 

  


Xion was surprised when her consciousness reformed out of the void. And it continued to, every now and then. Sometimes in response to the Organization showing up and bothering Sora, sometimes out of nowhere, for no apparent reason. With nothing else to do, she figured she might as well keep up with what was happening. If he was fighting the Organization, it might be worth watching. And if she found a way to help, all the better. Maybe he’d run into Naminé at some point. Xion could make sure he thanked her. 

On one such occasion, Xion wondered if Sora could sense when she was awake, sifting through memories trying to figure out what she had missed during the times when she… didn’t exist. Did he find himself having strange flashbacks? Weird thoughts? Just a feeling in the back of his head? 

If so, he didn’t say anything. He didn’t say that much, Xion had observed. Yes, he laughed and joked and articulated effort in combat, but he didn’t let anyone see what he was really thinking, to the point where she wondered if he was thinking at all. He seemed to feel rather than think. True, when she’d been her own person (as much as she ever had been), she hadn’t had the most vivid of personalities, but she’d thought a Somebody would be more… alive. Sora only sprang to life when his friends were talking to him. While battling Heartless and Nobodies he moved like a machine, like he’d had decades of experience instead of a few months. In that, at least, Xion understood why so many had been so desperate to bring him back. Sora was a _nightmare_ to stand against. No wonder Xemnas had spent all that effort to make a mindless weapon out of her. Left unchecked, this boy’s power would tear through worlds like so much paper. 

This world he was in now was interesting, and Xion had awoken in response to someone Sora had met here. A girl forced to pretend to be a boy. She could relate to that, though Mulan didn’t seem to mind much. Maybe she would prefer to be a boy. Did she know it was up to her? Maybe her appearance wasn’t directly dictated by her choices, like Xion’s was, but Xion had felt like a girl well before her form had settled, or even before she’d really been aware that she had any control over it. The feeling was what mattered. 

Mulan went by Ping as a man. That made Xion think. She’d been given the name Xion as a mockery, after her Replica number. And even _that_ wasn’t a real number. _i_ , the square root of a negative. Imaginary. Presence and absence at the same time. That which could not be comprehended or defined… or made real. Is that a name she wanted to keep? 

But that was something for a real person with a real future to think about. She wasn’t one, and didn’t have one. And then she was distracted by the appearance of what seemed to be another Organization member… but the odd one she’d seen lurking around Sora during his travels, who didn’t seem to mean any harm. 

He was tall. Adult-sized. And probably not one of the Organization, but Xion knew she’d seen him somewhere before… which rather limited the options, now that she thought about it. 

Someone in an Organization coat, but who wasn’t one of them. The way he moved, the stance he held. Waiting with all the patience and composure of a stone. 

_Riku_. 

It was unmistakably him. It had been him all along. What the hell was he doing? All that whining about getting his friend back, all to lead him on some elaborate game of cat and mouse while concealing himself? And why was he so _big?_ Growth spurts were one thing, but unless he’d somehow aged ten times as fast as everyone else… 

But wait. Xion had seen Riku right before she’d joined Sora. He’d been a little taller, she’d thought… but nothing like this. He’d rushed off to fight the Organization as they'd tried to reclaim her at the last second. What had they done to him? Was he under their control? 

The stress of worrying about this caused Xion to fade again, and she hoped Sora would get to the bottom of it. 

  


Axel was dying. Disappearing. Whatever it was Nobodies did. His existence was ending. 

He’d gone out with a bang, of course. Xion wasn’t entirely certain that he’d needed to, but she knew he wouldn’t have it any other way. She watched through Sora’s eyes as her friend expended the very last shreds of his energy making a portal to the Organization’s world. 

Then he dissolved. And Xion truly, finally, had no one left. 

She went to follow him, but Sora wouldn’t let her. There was a connection between the two of them now. It pulled Xion back when she tried to disappear. She wondered if this was her doing. Had her brief moments of wakefulness meant that she had doomed herself to this half-existence forever? 

If she could form a body, even an imaginary one, and wield her Keyblades, she might just be able to sever the thread binding her and set herself free. But Xion didn’t have the strength, so she watched listlessly as Sora strode into the world of the Organization. 

And shortly thereafter, she got the power she needed. Sora arrived before the skyscraper where Riku had confronted her, the last place she’d seen Roxas. The last time she’d fought for her right to exist. And while she hadn’t lost, she’d surrendered anyway. 

Those memories sent a rush of energy into Xion’s flagging heart, and quick as a thought she crafted herself a body and a place on which to stand. More than that, she suddenly felt like she and Sora were on equal footing, if just for now. She reached for the connection and instead of severing it, _pulled_ , and- 

The two of them, Somebody and Nobody, stood on a shifting, ethereal surface which was plastered with glowing images of Sora’s memories and friends. Xion had no place here, but she held her ground, facing him. He looked stunned, having been abruptly yanked into himself- Xion had a brief vision of his prone form on the cement, those strange animal companions of his looking him over with concern- and only just reacted in time when she charged him. 

He'd started to say something, but the sight of Xion barreling in his direction, sparks flying off her Keyblades as they scraped across the shimmering display of his heart, silenced him. His face went stony, and she recognized the look as the one he bore in combat. The ruthless, unstoppable power of the Keyblade hero was about to be turned on her, and she looked forward to the challenge. Maybe it’d make her feel alive. 

The two of them clashed again and again, simple silver Key warding off her dual blades of light and darkness. She moved faster than him, dancing around him and over him and out of his reach. But when she engaged, she found there was never any solid opening. He was _good_. Efficient, practiced, brutal. He weaved and dodged and parried with a precision that, for all Xion’s power and agility, she could not hope to match. She landed some glancing blows, far more than he did. She could see it hurt him. But he just kept coming. 

Xion slipped up, just once, and found herself staring him down, their faces centimeters apart. Her two Keyblades were crossed protectively in front of her, his locked between them. She had managed to block his swing at the last instant, but the tip of his weapon was brushing the front of her coat. He was strong. Xion wasn’t sure how much longer she was going to last before she would either be forced to drop her Keys or watch them shatter. 

“Do it, then. Take everything I have left. _Do it_.” 

Sora hesitated, letting up ever so slightly, and that was all she needed to end it. Xion dismissed one Key, immediately reformed it, and batted his weapon away. Then she threw herself at him, sending him toppling over. Pinning his Key to the insubstantial ground with her left blade and holding the right to his throat, she said, “It’s over. I win.” 

“Who _are_ you?” 

Ha. “No one of importance.” 

“That’s not an answer!” 

“No, but it’s all you’re getting until you tell me something.” Xion brought the edge of her blade closer to his neck and pondered what would happen if she struck him down. 

“What?” 

“Why you, and not me?” 

He thought for a bit. His Keyblade vanished, and Xion tensed, in case Sora was planning to try something. But no, he’d just gotten distracted while he mulled over her question. Finally, he smiled in a way he probably thought was winningly and said, “How do I answer that without knowing who you are?” 

Xion couldn’t help but laugh, and maybe that was an answer in itself. She dismissed her Keyblades and stood up, but kept an eye out for any sudden moves as Sora too climbed to his feet. She saw none. He wasn’t interested in fighting anymore, and Xion found that she wasn’t, either. 

“What’s your name?” 

Xion went to answer, and then stopped. Her name… 

Her name was the only thing she had left that was hers. And even that, Xion thought bitterly, had been given to her by someone else. It wasn’t even a real name, but it was all she had. If Sora didn’t know it, she wasn’t going to surrender it. 

“I’m just… your other.” 

“Um… hi, Just Yourother?” 

Wow. 

“No. I mean, I’m not giving you my name. Just consider me your other half. Your shadow.” Had he always been this slow or had Naminé left him in the pod a bit too long? No, she doubted Naminé did anything wrong. This was what Xion was going to have to put up with, she supposed. 

“Oh. Why won’t you tell me your name?” 

“Because. You’ve already taken everything else from me.” She didn’t hate him, really. Though she freely admitted to herself that beating the hell out of him just now had been pretty satisfying. Xion had been forced to wear that face against her will, she could stand to see it a little roughed up. 

“What do you mean?” 

She’d wanted to stick to simple, ominous answers for the look of the thing, but this boy just didn’t take the hint. “You were trapped asleep. Something had… broken you. I was made from the shards of your memory, and those shards had to be returned to you for you to wake up. So here I am, too. We couldn’t both exist. I died, you lived.” 

“But that’s not fair!” he cried. 

Xion stared. Everything this boy had seen, and he believed in _fairness?_ “That’s the way it is. Don’t feel bad. I was never really real. I wasn’t even supposed to be playing this role. Things got… complicated. You can thank the Organization for that.” 

“What are you talking about? Of course you’re real! You’re standing here talking to me!” 

She sighed. “Where is _here?_ We’re inside your mind, Sora. You’re talking to yourself.” 

Sora paused, and then Xion watched as it finally dawned on him. “Ohhhh, I get it. You’re my Nobody, aren’t you?” 

Close enough. She was frankly rather impressed that he’d figured it out at all. “I am.” 

“Oh. How can I save you?” 

He just wouldn’t stop. And again, there was her answer. “You can’t.” 

“I don’t accept that!” 

“You have things to do, and I’m already lost. If you want to avenge me, though, I wouldn’t say no to that. Destroy the Organization. _Especially_ Xemnas and Saïx.” 

“Things that are lost can be found again.” 

“Just, shut _up_.” 

He did and stared at her, hurt. Xion didn’t waver. “Go away, Sora. I pulled you in here to meet you properly, and I have. I’m already starting to fade. I don’t know when, or if, I’ll wake up again.” It was true. Her little sparring match had used up the power she’d managed to claim for herself. Once again, Xion had won, but she’d have to surrender. The Nobody turned and walked away, heading out of the circle of light. 

“Wait! One last thing…” 

Dammit. “Yes?” 

“Why is my Nobody a girl?” 

Xion gasped and froze in place. Despite herself, her vision started to cloud with tears. He’d seen her. The real her. The real Xion. Not a copy of himself. Not Roxas. Not a faceless puppet. 

This sweet simple boy had seen _her_. And that… that is why it had to be him. 

“Uhh… Other? Miss Other?” 

Absolutely incredible. 

Xion surreptitiously wiped her eyes, and then turned smartly to face him again. “Why am I a girl? Why are _you_ a boy?” 

This seemed to stump him. He crossed his arms behind his head and thought about it for a bit, then relaxed, shrugged, and grinned lazily. “I just am, I guess.” 

“That’s my answer, too. Now get out of here.” Xion let herself slide back into darkness, feeling for the first time that maybe, just maybe, things would turn out alright. If not for her, then at least for everyone else, including this dear idiot. 

  


She met someone on her way back into oblivion. Finding herself sitting on the old clock tower, Xion looked to her right to see Axel. She failed to be surprised. He’d probably hitched a ride in Sora, just like his best friends. But it wasn’t a strong enough connection to sustain him. In reality, he was already gone. This was more like an echo. 

The echo handed Xion some ice cream, and she ate it. 

There was a space between them. It was where Roxas had sat. Xion dared to hope that maybe, just maybe… he’d show. She knew he wasn’t gone for good. She could feel him, somewhere within Sora. But their other friend did not appear. Instead, Axel scooted over and closed the gap. 

“I remember when you first showed me your face. We were sitting right here, and I was helping you two come with up a plan to hide your missing powers. And then, you took your hood off.” 

“I never took my hood off, Axel,” she replied. “I never had it on. You saw my face then because that was the first time you saw me as a person.” 

“Huh. Is that right.” He shifted in place and finished off his own ice cream. “But were any of us really people?” 

Xion had to tell him. “We have hearts, Axel. Maybe fake hearts. Maybe weak hearts. But they’re ours.” 

He didn’t seem too shocked. “Well how about that.” 

Silence followed. Eventually, she ended it. “I didn’t mean to, you know. I wanted him to win. Xemnas… he _forced_ me.” 

Axel nodded. “He told me, when I returned without Roxas the second time. He said that he’d spare me from erasure only because I had been ordered to retrieve someone that no longer existed. I think I’d have preferred he just turn me into a Dusk. I’m sorry for getting angry, I didn’t want to lose you either, but…” He trailed off. 

“But I’m the Replica,” she supplied. “The fake.” 

He flinched. “Xion,” Axel said, “you’re my friend too. I… I never knew which one of you to choose. It wasn’t a choice. It was suffering.” 

“And you didn’t realize that you had a heart, then?” 

He chuckled. “Silly of me, I know.” 

“…He isn’t gone. Not entirely. He’s somewhere… asleep. Inside Sora. And I saw him, just once. He stopped me from getting captured by the Organization after our duel.” 

Axel smiled, and a tear made its way down his cheek, mocking the markings under his eyes. “I’d hoped that, when I saw you pull out two Keyblades. It only made sense. And something’s been bothering me. You called me Lea… when I _was_ Lea, back when I was a kid, I met someone who looked quite a lot like Roxas. I’d always thought it had to be coincidence. Or a distant relation, or just the faulty memory of a Nobody playing tricks on me. But now, I’m not so sure.” 

“What are you talking about?” Xion stared at him. 

“Let’s just say that in a world where _you_ exist, anything’s possible.” She gave him a friendly shove, and the two of them laughed. 

They enjoyed the view together in peace, one last time. And for once, the sun actually set, putting an end to the eternal twilight. 

Maybe, Xion thought, there would be a dawn. At least for one of them. 

  


This time, it was Sora that pulled her out of the dark. Xion didn’t think he'd meant to, but his strong emotions had swept over her and pushed away the shadows. She smiled without a mouth. He’d found Kairi… and Riku, though he hadn’t realized it yet. 

Kairi rushed him, and he returned her embrace. Shortly thereafter, she showed him who this tall stranger bearing an enemy’s face really was, and Xion was bombarded by an even stronger wave of feelings. 

The Nobody compared the emotions from when Sora had hugged Kairi with what she was feeling from him now, as he grasped Riku’s hand and cried. Ah. So _that_ was love. Xion idly speculated on whether Kairi knew, then remembered that it wasn’t her place. It’d work itself out, she doubted that Sora was the kind to be capable of loving only one person, and she really didn’t think Kairi would mind. It was just that, clueless buffoon that he was, he probably hadn’t realized that the girl cared about him as deeply as he cared about Riku. No, deep wasn’t the right word. Sora _cared_ for the two in equal measure. And not just them, but a whole host of other people… including _Xion herself_. What the hell? She had only spoken to him directly once, and she’d nearly cut his head off! What was wrong with this boy? 

She realized she was effectively abusing her position in his heart to read Sora’s internal diary, rummaging around in his memories and emotions. That was not something Xion thought she should be doing. Though the… reddish… tint surrounding all his thoughts of Riku reminded her of something she’d felt, once. 

Shoving that away, she scrolled through his recent memories to catch herself up, even though that too made her feel like a bit of a creep. She promised herself that once the Organization was gone, she’d rejoin Sora properly. Until then, she wanted to see this through as Xion. 

She appreciated Riku effectively bullying Saïx, and certainly didn’t mind watching and rewatching the man who had called her “Poppet” die. She noted with amusement that Xigbar seemed to think Xion had perished and Roxas had been victorious. Xemnas hadn’t told him. The Organization’s number two had tried to call number thirteen out, but of course he hadn’t gotten a response. He was here somewhere, but in a deep, deep sleep. It would take far more than calling his name to wake him up. And he hadn’t thought to call for number _fourteen_ , not that she would have given him the pleasure. Though she might have tried to take control from Sora to kill him herself if he’d uttered that awful nickname. 

Back in the present, a battle with Luxord ensued, and it nearly put Xion to sleep. Who cared about Luxord? He sounded so _hurt_ when he called Roxas’s name as he fell, but she didn’t think Roxas would care either if he was in her place. But then Sora went up against Saïx, who apparently also didn’t know about the outcome of her battle with Roxas, and she focused. Now this, this was a fight she wanted to help out with. If Sora noticed that he was hitting a little harder than usual, and even lashing out with a foot or fist on occasion out of nowhere, he didn’t let on. Just for an instant, as the bastard lay dying, Xion asserted herself fully. He saw her, though she had no idea _which_ her. Whatever he saw, it stopped his dramatic last words in their tracks. She gave him a wide grin, and his face showed shock as it fell apart into nothing. 

That had been satisfying. But as Xion went to turn back into nothing- the pull was getting stronger and stronger, she’d overstretched herself again- she saw Riku’s shocked face. And Kairi’s far more quizzical one. Donald and Goofy didn’t seem to have seen anything, however. But the other two had. Oh, no. 

Xion listened in as Sora started questioning who Roxas was, fighting harder and harder to stay conscious. “Is… is that my Nobody’s name?” she heard. Shit. If Riku tried to say anything about her… 

He did. The moment he said “her,” Xion took over Sora again in one great act of willpower, shoving her counterpart all the way into darkness. It wouldn’t last, and she’d probably dissolve back into him forever after this, but she would _not_ permit Riku to do what he had been about to do. 

With Sora’s mouth, layering on the sweetness in his voice, Xion said, “Riku? If you tell him my name, you’ll have to find yet _another_ body, because that one won’t be functional once I’m through with it.” 

She snapped back into the fog of Sora’s heart like a rubber band giving way under tension, laughing without a voice at Riku’s expression. 

  


When she woke again, it was to a nightmare. 

Riku and Sora were fighting Xemnas. Donald and Goofy had been knocked out already. Helpless, she watched as a completely uninjured Sora keeled over, the Organization’s leader extending a hand towards him. Xion felt something terrible, and terribly familiar. Xemnas was invading her mind. It was happening again. 

But it was so much worse this time, she realized. He could use her to take over her other. New power flooded her heart, but it was only darkness. As Xion felt herself yank on the connection again, bringing forth a confused Sora to the arena where she’d defeated him once already, she wondered if this had been the monster’s plan all along. 

Once again, she was bound to Xemnas’s will and her appearance changed to become Sora. That hideous armor followed, turning her into a cold automaton. That’s what Xemnas thought she was, after all, and right now he dictated who she was and what she did. In his eyes, Xion was just a copy of Sora with marionette strings attached, the ends of which he held. She could even see them, lines of darkness binding her limbs and forcing her to attack her counterpart. They extended upwards and out of Sora’s mind, right into Xemnas’s grip. He manipulated them freely as he fought a now-alone Riku, who was losing ground fast. Somehow the boy had gotten his old body back and even cast aside the coat he’d worn as long as she’d known him, but right now, she wasn’t concerned with that. Xion struggled against her bonds and she felt the strings loosen just a bit, but then they wrapped around her all the tighter. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, except she didn’t. What she heard come out of her mouth was, “This is _my_ body now.” Sora’s expression of shock and fear made Xion want to cry, but she was denied even that. She reached for her weapons, but a quick surge of resistance paid off, and Xemnas only managed to force her to call one of her Keyblades. The one that had been hers originally, the one her suffering had altered into its current forbidding shape. She could do nothing to stop herself from turning it on Sora, and the pair clashed again. This time, there would be no mercy. Xion would slay her other, take his body for her own, and then eliminate Riku while the Organization’s leader laughed. 

There was no hell hot enough for Xemnas. Or Xehanort. Or whatever his name was. But rage was not enough to break Xion’s chains. 

No, something else did that. From the gloom came her other Keyblade, the one she had learned at some point or another was called Oathkeeper. Shining brilliantly, it swiped through the strings holding her and she collapsed, suddenly and blessedly free of Xemnas’s control. The armor crumbled, and Xion was herself again. The Keyblade fell to the ground beside her with a clatter, while the one she’d summoned disappeared. Sora stopped mid-swing. 

“Miss Other?” 

_“Go,”_ she said. Xemnas, astonished and enraged, had turned on Riku with a new fury, and the boy looked like he was seconds from being overwhelmed. Sora nodded, and faded from view. Xion watched him leap to his feet and rejoin the fight. 

She stared at the weapon lying at her side. Xion went to reach for it, but someone took her hand and pulled her upright. 

Roxas’s face filled her vision, and she gasped. The tears that Xemnas had forbidden began leaking out. Her friend’s eyes were closed, and he moved sluggishly, like someone sleepwalking. And that was probably because he appeared to be doing exactly that. But even so, he picked up her Keyblade- no, she remembered, _his_ Keyblade- and the moment it was in his hand it changed. And so did Roxas. 

She was definitely looking at Roxas, but his black coat was gone. Instead, he wore a complex outfit of black, white, grey, and green, studded with… armor? It was the strangest thing Xion had ever seen, until she saw his Keyblade. It had reversed in his hand, pointing backwards. It seemed crude but definite, like something a child had thought looked cool and then had ended up only believing that harder as they’d grown up. 

Roxas’s appearance alternated between these two forms, blurring and shifting, and then he started to disappear. One hand gripping Xion’s tightly, the other holding his reclaimed Keyblade. The circle of light they stood in dimmed and diminished, and Xion let it. She’d think about what she’d seen when and if she woke up again. Sora needed every scrap of power and concentration for the battle in front of him. 

Something pinged in her other’s recent memory, and as she slipped back into Sora she pulled it up to find… _DiZ_. Or “Ansem the Wise,” apparently, now that he’d removed the bandages concealing his features. He’d looked at Sora and spoken to Xion, and promptly gotten himself killed. She didn’t find herself too sad about that, but she was interested in what he had said. 

“And to the people I trapped within Sora… I doubt you can hear me, but I am sorry.” 

Well. That’s nice. Even so, it had been better for him that she’d been recovering from her earlier efforts and unable to hear him. Or see him. Xion would have tried… something unpleasant. And that happy thought was her last for what proved to be only a short while. 

  


Xion rose in time to see Xemnas fall and rejoiced at his destruction. Sora had even mocked him before the fight, she now recalled. She _knew_ he didn’t think that Nobodies didn’t exist, or couldn’t feel, though at times she had certainly thought that might be true. But he had told Xemnas that anyway, to shut him up. 

He wasn’t a bad other. 

But now they were stuck in a collapsing world. Xion watched as Riku tried and failed to open a corridor. Apparently, he “wasn’t a creature of darkness anymore.” Okay, thanks… Mickey? Who and what was this thing, she wondered, and why was he here? 

She decided to sort that out later. Xion was pretty sure she qualified as a creature of darkness, and she projected herself out of Sora. And when she did, she found she wasn’t alone. 

It was her. 

Naminé. 

She looked just as surprised, and _pleased_ , to see Xion as Xion was to see her. No doubt the girl had just had the same thought, that she might be able to help her other escape. She must have been lurking inside Kairi this whole time. Xion found herself hoping she’d seen her help out Sora against Saïx, and that… she hadn’t been scared by her threat to Riku. Oh, no. If she’d seen one, she’d seen the other. 

She didn’t seem scared of Xion, to the black-haired girl’s relief. In sync, the two Nobodies extended a hand and forged a pathway out together. As they did, Xion thought about Naminé. Why did she feel so drawn to Kairi’s Nobody? It couldn’t just be because of Sora. She had no such feelings for Riku. 

She supposed… well, Naminé had been kind, first and foremost. But there was something else. Both of them led existences that were, on the face of it, complete nonsense. Naminé, a shadow of someone who was supposed to be a source of light and therefore had no shadows, and Xion, a copy of a counterpart of the real hero who had ended up playing a role not meant for her. Neither of them made sense, so they understood each other in a way no one else ever could. 

Everyone but Sora, Riku, and Kairi rushed out quickly. And wait, was that her old dog that had just run past? Whatever. Xion’s life, or lack thereof, was already so goddamn weird. This might as well happen. She turned her attention to Naminé, and found she was already looking at her like… like she was the moon in the sky. A pleasant one, that is, not the wretched malformed thing Sora and Riku had just destroyed. 

Whatever heart Xion had, it stopped working at the sight. 

“Hey,” she said, and then flinched at her own incredible lack of tact. She really _was_ Sora’s Nobody. 

Did Naminé just giggle at her? Oh, no… 

“Hey,” she responded in kind, smiling. 

Could someone be tongue-tied without a real, physical tongue? Xion had found a way. Realizing she wasn’t going to say anything, Naminé picked up the slack. “I told you I’d see you later.” 

Xion managed to nod. Naminé was really here, and she was really here, and they were _together_ … 

They heard Kairi clear her throat, and the two of them jumped and looked over to the others. So they could see them. Kairi, in particular, was smiling at the pair. Well, that ruled out one course of action Xion had been considering… 

No, she still wanted to kiss this girl. she didn’t care if others were watching. And while she knew that might be… a little sudden, Xion got the strong impression that she wouldn’t mind. But she didn’t, because Naminé was talking to Sora and Kairi. 

“We’re glad we got to meet you. Or at least I am. I don’t know about her, she seems to be a little flustered.” She was teasing her. Xion didn’t know how to even begin to handle that. 

She found her voice. “No, I’m glad too. And… I’m thankful that you brought me here, Sora. Also, that you wrecked Xemnas and Saïx. Good work. Sorry for almost killing you. Um, twice. But the second time wasn’t my fault.” 

Naminé interrupted her babbling. “We’ll return to you now. Properly. Don’t be sad… whenever the two of you are together, so will we be. I just ask that you don’t disappoint us,” she said, glancing at Sora. 

Xion, Naminé, and Kairi exchanged the exact same look. _Thank you_ , the latter mouthed. Xion felt for Kairi, she really did. As for Sora, he just looked confused. “Yeah? I mean… I wasn’t going to just up and abandon her…” 

“Good,” Xion said, sharper than she probably needed to. Naminé gave her a nudge. 

“It’s time,” she said. And she was right. The Organization was gone. There was no need to be Xion anymore. 

Part of her wanted to protest. Yes, Xion and Naminé would be together when Sora and Kairi were together… but it wouldn’t be the same. And Xion dreaded the thought of existing in a world where her getting a chance to see more of this girl might rely on Sora realizing that Kairi didn’t just like him as a friend. His Nobody had apparently stolen whatever people-reading skills the Somebody had. 

But it was what Naminé wanted. She’d accept it. And after everything… she was tired again. Xion wanted to sleep, and this time, she might just sleep peacefully. 

Xion reached for Naminé’s hand, and found that the other girl had done the same, meeting in the middle. In unison, they extended their other hands and, with far less trepidation, grasped those of their still dumbfounded respective others. They returned to where they came from together. Side by side before, and side by side after. 

  


It was a long while until Xion stirred again. Eventually, she found her mind knitting itself together, but not called by anything in particular. It was, she realized with alarm, because Sora was starting to drift away that her buried consciousness had managed to surface. He was somewhere very strange, walking along an avenue of dreams, chasing them deeper and deeper into nothingness. She tried to get his attention, seizing onto one of the illusions and making it her vessel, but he only chased her farther into the void when she called his name. Xion relented and scolded herself. Wherever Sora’s path led, it wasn’t her place to interfere. She wasn’t a part of this story anymore, and she gave up trying to figure out what was happening after a quick look at his increasingly jumbled memories. Something about three missing Keyblade wielders- a part of her twinged oddly when she recalled their names- and worlds in slumber. 

But then, a few minutes later, he saw a vision of Naminé. And suddenly, something in Xion resisted giving up her place in this story. It resisted so strongly that she materialized right before Sora, where the fake Naminé had stood a moment ago. He recoiled in shock. 

Xion examined herself. This wasn’t a body, of course. It was just another illusion in a world of illusions. But right now, a solid one. She stared into Sora’s eyes, blue meeting blue. 

She said, without a trace of jealousy in her voice, “This could have been the other way around, you know.” 

“Miss Other-” 

“Stop calling me that. _Anything_ else. ‘Miss,’ good. ‘Other,’ fine. But not both. It sounds stupid.” 

“Just tell me your name!” 

Xion shook her head. “No, but I have something else for you.” Before she could rethink it, she grabbed his hands and let her memories flow into him. He wailed and struggled. Her experiences weren’t pleasant ones. 

Ignoring the part of her that protested, the part that had ached when she'd seen Naminé, Xion gave him everything. Everything except her name. 

Maybe retaining it was why she _still_ didn’t go away entirely, to her irritation. It would be easy. Just tell him her name, and she could dissolve for good. But no. He’d have to find that out on his own. Xion faded from view, returning to his mind, and joined him as he continued down the road of sleep. 

To her horror, at the end of that road was Xemnas and Xigbar. While mocking him, they told Sora what Xion already knew: that she, and Roxas, and Axel, and maybe even others, had developed hearts even as Nobodies. She appreciated Sora’s anger on her behalf, and his eloquent (for him) rebuttal, but she knew with every second he was weakening. Xigbar departed, and Xemnas and Sora dueled. At any moment Xion expected Xemnas to try to control him through her again. But he didn’t. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe she had faded too much to be of any use. Maybe when Roxas had severed the marionette strings, it had been for good. Or maybe Xemnas wasn’t really there, and Sora was fighting smoke. 

Smoke or no, the leader of the Organization fell, but so did Sora. As he collapsed, Keyblade vanishing, another figure appeared. A real one. Right now, this man was realer than Sora. The person who eventually revealed himself to be a young Xehanort mocked her other, telling him exactly what was going to happen to him. Xion felt herself grow a little stronger out of sheer panic. She refused to let Xehanort control Sora as he’d controlled her. 

Sora was diminishing rapidly, falling into darkness. With all the effort she could muster, Xion pieced together a misty, unsteady figure, leaning over him. She heard the child version of her enemy exclaim, and then start slow-clapping. She ignored whatever nonsense he was saying. 

“Sora,” she whispered, because it was all she could do. “Don’t. Wake up. Stop it. I can’t die for you again, you idiot.” Xion tried to shake him, but her illusory hand dissipated when it touched him. 

No, it was too late, he was gone. Xion felt herself growing drowsy in turn, her ramshackle form slipping away. 

She, or possibly Sora, fell asleep. 

  


Xion woke to a strange vision of Riku fighting inside Sora’s heart, beset by two figures. One was her. Her as she’d looked when she fought Roxas, wearing armor that was more prison than defense. The other was another, clunkier set of armor that was almost familiar in a way she couldn’t place. Both consisted of shadows, the bright colors Xion remembered hers having drained away. 

Seeing that horrible figure again, she shuddered. Or she would have, if she’d had a form to shudder with. Slowly, Xion tried to sink back into unconsciousness. She nearly made it, too, the sounds of the battle dying away. But then she was yanked into light, and to her shock, given a body. Not a real body, one made of memory, like her heart had been. But a body nonetheless, and one that assumed her true appearance. 

She looked around and found herself on… a beach. Xion smiled wanly. She’d wanted to go to the beach, a whole lifetime ago, and here she was. But her friends weren’t here. Neither set of them, the fake ones or the faker ones. 

Wait. No, that wasn’t true. Lying peacefully against a palm tree was Roxas… but not Roxas. It was Roxas in the form he’d assumed after he’d saved her from Xemnas. 

There was no one else here. But Xion could feel Roxas nearby, like she always could. 

_There was no one else here._

With a kind of stifled, empty amusement, she understood. This Ventus the letter had spoke of, the sleeping boy… the one Axel had met so long ago… here he was. And here too, was Roxas. They had been the same person all along, Roxas being a dream that Ventus had dreamed in his fitful slumber. If Sora had ever had a true Nobody, this boy had taken their place immediately. And then she had taken it from him in turn, casting him back to his rest. 

Xion didn’t try to wake him. Roxas- no, _Ventus_ , she corrected herself, had other friends. Real friends. The slightly older man and woman. He was even dressed like them, strange pieces of- she shuddered, for real this time- armor scattered about his person. The other suit attacking Riku must have been his. She wondered who had imprisoned him in it, and if that was why he was asleep now. 

Footsteps in the sand broke her train of thought, and Xion turned to see Riku approaching. Had he brought her here? She supposed he owed it to her. 

“What are you doing here?” 

Riku grimaced. “Hey. Xion, it’s good to see you,” and he meant that, to her amazement, “but you’re not going to like this. I kind of need to wake Sora up.” 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” She’d _died_ to wake him up, and he’d had the gall to fall right back asleep? “What’s the plan? Chuck yet another person into his heart to jumpstart it? I’m not sure there’s any room left.” 

The boy shook his head. Riku looked different, Xion noticed. Capable, confident. Powerful. And more than that, he seemed free of whatever had been tormenting him when she’d known him in person. 

Good for him. 

“No,” he said. “I think I can do it myself. He was trapped in darkness, but I slew it. I just need to, well. I guess jumpstart his heart is a good way of putting it. I just don’t know where he is. This is our home, but… he’s not here.” 

Xion believed she could help with that. She’d grown pretty used to navigating Sora’s heart. Reaching out with her mind, she searched for her other across her connection to him, and… 

“Riku, you’re in the wrong place.” 

“What?!” 

“He’s awake. Unless he’s having a very detailed dream of a tea party…” And _Axel_ was there, too, sitting backwards in a chair for some ridiculous reason. No... not Axel. It was Lea, a Nobody no longer. Xion didn’t know how, but it looked like her friend had made it to dawn. She was so, so glad. 

“Wow.” Riku started laughing, and for just a moment, Xion joined in. Then he summoned his Keyblade. “I… I have to go to him. But Xion? We’ll come back for you. I know you don’t want him knowing your name, I stopped Lea from telling him, but… it might be a lot harder for him to find you without it.” 

She shook her head. “Don’t worry about me. I don’t want to be found. I’ve been trying to go back to him for good, but he just won’t let me. He’s quite stubborn.” 

Riku muttered something. _“Are you…stubborn…Replica…worse than Sora.”_

“ _What_ did you say?” 

He wasn’t intimidated this time. “I’ll tell you, Xion, _when_ I see you again.” And in a flash of light, he was gone. 

After the fanfare of Riku’s exit had faded away, Xion sat down and watched Ventus’s sleeping form. The beach was beginning to crumble, the waves stuttering and greying out. Axel, no, _Lea_ was safe, and the person she’d known as Roxas had other friends searching for a way to wake him. Other friends, with real bonds and real hearts. 

She was Xion, and no one needed her. Accepting that, she felt herself disperse and fade away, deeper and deeper into the depths of Sora’s heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This really is a lot of fun. While 90% of it is just swapped pronouns, there's that 10% where I have to find workarounds. Some lines actually hit harder in 3rd, while others are significantly weakened. The whole point of me writing at this stage is to practice and observe mechanical details, and this is proving a *fantastic* exercise. I may have already intuitively known the strengths and weaknesses of different POVs, but actually seeing it in action and having to define said differences is just so god damn cool. Seriously, I live for this shit.


	3. Dawn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think you know how all of this is going to go, if you think it’s just going to be III minus Roxas but with a more developed Xion, you're _**dead fucking wrong.**_ For one thing, the end of the final battle with Xehanort is almost exactly the halfway point. Have fun.

It wasn’t Xion that woke up. Not at first. 

She was blank, and empty. She was hooded, and featureless. She was new, and comatose. 

The moment she stirred, beginning to recall that she _did_ have memories, that she _were_ a person, she felt something pull back and shove her away. Another heart had assumed her title, if not her identity, and it would tolerate no rival. Whether it did this by its own volition or was forced to, she had no idea. 

Xion fell, rejected by this body that had claimed her being for its own. 

And then, like a pendulum completing its arc, she rose and found herself watching from behind Sora’s eyes again. He was trying to needle Riku about her and Roxas. Xion hoped the taller boy didn’t try to tell Sora her name. She didn’t think she’d be able to stop him this time. 

“Roxas was… it’s kind of complex, Sora. But Ventus? One of the lost Keyblade wielders? For a time, he was awake and serving the Organization under the name Roxas. I don’t think he had any memory of his old life. But then the girl who became your Nobody defeated him and he fell back asleep. It was just before I fought her.” 

So Riku had realized it too when he’d made the dive into Sora’s heart. Xion was pleased to see that there was at least one somewhat intelligent person among the guardians of light. 

“You _fought_ her back then?! What’s her name?” 

“I can’t tell you, Sora.” 

“Why not?” 

Riku looked Sora dead in the eyes, and Xion knew he was speaking to her. “Because I _like_ the body I have now.” 

She subsided, relieved. 

  


He was after her again. Trying to dig her up. But without her name, he couldn’t find her. Xion had made sure of it. 

But the idiot wouldn’t give up. He reached harder, and he might just have made a connection, sending him off to some world or another that would let him pick up her trail… 

Xion did the only thing she could to stop him. She yielded, fracturing what was left of her heart. She sabotaged her link with Sora right as he was travelling between worlds, and sent him spiraling off somewhere else. Xion didn’t care where, he’d fight his way out. He was incredibly resilient and stubborn. And that’s why she couldn’t let him waste his considerable power on a lost cause. 

The damage she did to herr own heart was enough that she was no longer bound just to Sora. A piece stayed with him, but just for moment, she was in three other places. 

Where Hayner, Pence, and Olette stopped what they were doing and clutched their heads as one, like they’d just been struck by the same headache. 

Where Lea dropped his ice cream, staring at Kairi like he’d seen a ghost. He started to cry, to the other girl’s alarm. 

Where a Xion stood, cold and emotionless, as Xemnas spoke to her. A Xion. Not her. The one that had rejected its own heart. 

And then she was gone. 

  


When light falls, darkness rises. So up Xion came yet again, surfacing as Sora dived deep, deep down into the abyss. He was searching for someone. 

For a panicked- _not_ hopeful, Xion insisted to herself- moment, she thought it was her. But no, it was one of the lost Keyblade wielders he was after. Aqua. 

Riku was here too. He and Sora... 

Really? Their connection was that powerful, that _absolutely overwhelming_ even in this place of utter despair, and Riku hadn’t figured out that Sora returned his feelings? Never mind, Xion had been wrong. Every guardian of light was a complete idiot. 

When the tower of shadows melted under the force of their light, a small figure came flying out. Not Aqua, the little mouse thing she’d seen a couple times before. Still an unanswered question, there, and Xion would have tried to sift through Sora’s memories to finally get to the bottom of it if Sora hadn’t been suddenly eye to eye with an enraged Aqua. 

She couldn’t say she was a fan of what she was pretty sure were signs of Aqua’s heart having succumbed to darkness, but otherwise. Uh. Wow. And, if she was being perfectly honest with herself, that first statement had been just a little bit of a lie. 

She did her best to not distract Sora as he, effectively, beat the evil out of her. It did seem to be that simple so very often, Xion mused. Or at least, when Sora was around it was. She suspected that he was the one making it so. 

And Aqua returned to the living world, shedding tears of joy in the light of the sun. Xion was pleased to see a story not too dissimilar to hers end well. Aqua, a genuine person, had fought much longer and harder than her, and she deserved it. 

When light rises, darkness falls. And so Xion slipped away, glad that when Ventus woke, he would have a real friend at his side. 

  


The image of Ventus, the real Ventus, lying asleep in a chair went through Sora’s pupils and straight to what remained of Xion’s heart. She found herself fully conscious in time to see Aqua leaning over her friend. 

“Ven, wake up.” 

Xion felt sorry for Aqua. She had come all this way, but his heart was here with Sora and her, and it was still fast asleep. He wouldn’t awaken easily. 

It was with some alarm, then, that she watched Ventus open his eyes and stand up. 

The Keyblade Master fell to her knees, hugging him. The boy just looked blank. “I…” 

“Ven,” cried Aqua. “You’re back. I’m so sorry I couldn’t be here sooner.” 

Stiffly, Ventus gave her a hand up. And when she turned her back on him to speak to Sora, there was a tiniest change in his expression. “Thank you for getting me here, Sora. Let’s go, Ven.” 

Ventus had a sharp gleam in his eye that didn’t suit him. Something in Sora’s recent memory flared, and Xion knew what was happening. No, no, _no_ … 

Xion didn’t have the strength to move her other, or even speak to him. She knew she’d let herself fade far too much. So it came as a surprise when in response to her will, her host leaped forward, knocked the blue-haired girl’s feet out from under her, and intercepted the attempt to stab the Master in the back. 

And Xion thought _her_ Keyblade was edgy. Through Sora’s eyes, which were blinking rapidly in confusion at what he had just done, she was in awe at just how over the top Vanitas’s weapon was. And then, she noticed that she could make the comparison to hers quite easily, because Sora was holding it. 

Hers was definitely better, she decided. Xion had enough time to confirm that before it vanished and was replaced with Sora’s Kingdom Key. 

“Sora, what-” Aqua had gotten back up just in time to see Xion’s Keyblade disappear. The Master stopped midsentence and executed a backflip away from Vanitas, pulling out her Keyblade at the peak of her arc. Al _right._ Xion was surrounded by drama queens, apparently. She begrudgingly admitted the other girl had looked damn good doing it, though. And all the while, she was waking up more and more, her heart pushing away the shadows enveloping it. This time, Xion didn’t stop herself. 

_“You,”_ Aqua hissed. 

Vanitas retreated before stepping out of his counterpart’s body. Ventus fell to the floor limply. 

“You can’t blame me for trying. We’re so similar, after all, my dear brother and me. I thought it’d fool you. And what fun that would have been, watching you be struck down by your little Ven after you’d crossed infinity to save him?” 

“Shut up,” either Xion or Sora said. Maybe both. Or maybe… someone else. This time, she felt certain that Ventus had just twitched inside their mutual prison. 

The masked boy paid Sora’s outburst no attention. “So he wants to keep sleeping. And you know what? I might just help him with that. There’s another plan in the works. I don’t need _him_ anymore.” 

And he stabbed his Keyblade downward. 

Something happened within Sora that Xion wasn’t privy to. Sora sank within himself- for a split second, _Xion_ had control, and she nearly fell over from the disorientation of suddenly having a body- and she got the sense that a great deal transpired in that instant. When Sora returned to the helm and Xion shrank back, she passed Ventus on the way, rising out of the shadows. 

There was a _clang_ as Ventus- in his body- stopped Vanitas’s blow. And then, as Xion watched, his strange Keyblade changed. The flat ends became sharp, triple pointed, and colored alternately gold and white. The handle grew wing designs. In the parts where it had been an almost wooden brown, it became sleek and pale, contrasting with the black. 

It retained the same basic shape, but Xion recognized the transformation. It was Oathkeeper, the blade he’d sent to save her from Xemnas, the blade he’d reclaimed from her afterwards. It had merged with his old Key, and at long, long last, her friend was awake. Though his Keyblade still looked odd, almost inverted. It had Xion a little concerned. Was something wrong with it? Was it, or he, damaged in some way? 

More importantly, would he remember her? 

Ventus knocked Vanitas aside, stood up, and dashed to Aqua’s side. When he looked at Sora- 

His startled reaction was due to something else. He didn’t see her. Xion knew that for certain. 

Xion thought she had let him go. But something in her wailed when she understood that while her Roxas may have been Ventus, Ventus did not have the memories of his time with the Organization. With her, or with Axel. 

But no, he’d recall Axel, wouldn’t he. Or Lea, anyway. He’d met Lea, after all. As Ventus. 

It was silly of her. She’d forgotten again that she didn’t have a place in this story, that there was no one waiting for her. The only person who might really miss her was happy to see her as part of another. 

Xion diminished, and watched the events that followed, if only because there was nothing else to do until her consciousness faded again. 

Vanitas began to back away. “Three guardians is-” 

“Oh no you don’t,” interrupted Aqua, making a sweeping gesture. Blue light arced around the floor and rose to form a barrier. It shoved Sora back, leaving him and his companions outside and her, Ventus, and Vanitas inside. “You’re going down right here, Vanitas. And… welcome back, Ven.” 

Sora, of course, protested. “Hey! Let me help!” Xion’s other needed to learn when to stop sticking his nose into things that really didn’t concern him. Then again, if he did, she supposed he wouldn’t be Sora. 

“Sorry, Sora, but this is our fight. And hey, Aqua,” said Ventus, and Xion felt a rush of happiness at hearing his voice. It was followed by a wave of shame. _Quit it,_ she told herself. 

Ventus and Aqua went for Vanitas as one, and the pawn of Xehanort was immediately on the defensive. 

Xion had meant to fall asleep, but something caught her eye. As she watched the battle, she started to wake again, out of sheer bemusement. What the _fuck_ was Ventus doing. That is not how you use a Keyblade. Xion was quite certain it was supposed to face forward. He was fast enough to make it work, but it looked just so completely ridiculous. That kind of speed would make him a nearly unstoppable opponent if just held his Keyblade like a normal person. Xion was glad he hadn’t done that when she’d known him. The Organization probably would have kicked him out for ruining their style. She hadn’t really thought about it before, but they really had put a lot of work into style. She supposed it hadn’t been hard, black does go with everything. 

Her thoughts were moving faster, casting aside the sluggishness of slumber. If by some miracle she got to be herself again- and to her embarrassment, there was still a part of Xion that wanted that, no matter the cost- the first thing on her agenda, after doing her sincere best to pulverize Xehanort, would be dragging this clown over just how absurd his method of fighting was. She’d thought something was wrong with the blade, but no, it was actually that something was wrong with the wielder. Why, Ventus. 

Why. 

Aqua didn’t seem to think anything of it. Clearly, he’d always fought like that. What the hell. Who allowed him to do this? 

“Whose Keyblade was that, by the way?” the Master called through the barrier, during a brief lull. 

“I don’t know! She won't tell me!” 

Aqua gave Sora a curious look, then had to return her attention to the battle. 

Oh no. This woman had spent an eternity in darkness searching for a way to get back to her friends. If she found out about Xion, she’d ruin everything. She’d probably end up killing Sora to let her out, and then Xion would have to die all over again to bring him back. No, thanks. 

Stamping down the tiny bit of her that want to reach out for Aqua, Xion forcibly dismantled her mind and returned to nothing. 

  


She didn’t wake, but she dreamed again. Xion was vaguely aware that this had been happening for a while, but they were becoming more vivid and more frequent. 

Always memories. Arriving as brief segments, they shut down the instant she realized it wasn’t real. Or was it her that was shutting down, or someone else? 

In spare moments, she began to piece it together. There was a Replica of her out there. The Organization was using it. Although… _it?_ Xion wasn’t sure that was accurate, because it- _she_ \- was starting to recall her experiences. Not all of them. Nothing after she rejoined Sora. And Xion definitely wasn’t doing it. She didn’t want this imposter Xion becoming her. If the Organization had made her, she still had her marionette strings attached. 

Xion knew how this worked by now. If she wasn’t very, very careful, the call of this body with her heart- a data heart, most likely, but data could become real- would pull her in. She’d become the Organization’s weapon again, and this time, there would be no one to save her. So she resisted. 

It happened again, and again, and again. She’d be drifting in nothingness, and then as if projected by a beacon memories would come flooding into her, and she’d be looking out from behind the eyes of her Replica. It never lasted more than a few seconds, though that was more than enough. Each time she dreamed, her thoughts became sharper, more coherent. Her heart was beginning to hum with power from every new memory, every recalled emotion no matter how dim. But where were the memories coming from? The Organization surely wouldn’t try to encourage free will in their new puppet… 

There was only a single vision that wasn’t a memory. It was a nightmare, instead. Xion watched as one by one Sora and his friends were destroyed by an onrushing tide of shadows, and Sora himself ended up in… almost nowhere. A blank world of ocean and sky. For an instant, Xion thought she heard Naminé’s voice. 

But then that vision stuttered and rewound, and she forgot it. It had never happened. 

  


When Xion finally woke up fully, she was eye to hooded eye with Kairi. In her shock, she lost her grip on her Keyblade- her original Keyblade, the one that had looked exactly like Sora’s- and Kairi didn’t hesitate to knock her weapon aside and deal her a terrible blow. Between that and her Replica rebuffing her yet again, Xion’s consciousness ricocheted back to her other’s heart. It wasn’t very far away. Kairi, Sora, Lea, and Ventus were fighting Saïx, Xemnas, and… _Xion._

How dare they make her fight alongside her tormentors? But no, it wasn’t her, Xion reminded herself. 

It still hurt. 

Xion watched helplessly as Kairi was forced to retreat from the battle, collapsing and wheezing for air. Xemnas tried to warp to her and finish her, but Ventus intercepted, and the two of them dueled until her friend too fell groaning into the dirt. Sora tried to race over to help, but Saïx barred his way. 

Rounding on Lea, who was now struggling against Xion’s Replica, Xemnas wasted no time in beating down the former assassin. Taunting him and even shattering his Keyblade when Lea made one last ditch attempt to fight back, while her copy watched impassively. Finally, Xemnas raised a blade and stabbed forward. He was going for the kill. 

_No,_ Xion thought, and to her astonishment her Replica stiffened and grabbed Xemnas’s weapon in midair. But she wasn’t even linked to it right now. It was doing this all on its own. Or… her own? No. Xion didn’t think so. It had been kept on far too short a leash to develop anything resembling a sense of identity. Which made its actions now even more impossible. 

“Changing sides again?” sneered Xehanort’s Nobody. Like Xion had ever been on his side. “Oh… yes. You were friends in another life. You do it. You end him in _this_ life, puppet.” 

She saw Xemnas flex his fingers, and the Replica flinched. What had he done to it? He must have taken control of it before, just to show he could. 

If Xion could do just one thing, if she could enact a single change upon the world, it would be to eradicate every last atom in Xemnas’s body. As for her other self, it hesitated, and lifted its Keyblade. 

Axel stared at its hooded face. Xion heard him whisper, “It can’t be.” 

Her copy froze in place. Truly and completely stopped, as if time had come to a standstill. Xemnas tried to take control, but whatever it had done, it had locked down its burgeoning heart. 

“Useless _thing._ ” 

Having somehow managed to find a worse insult than it, he kicked her Replica out of the way. Slowly, he approached Lea, red blades extended. 

A soft light drew Xion’s attention. On the ground, Ventus was stirring. His Keyblade was _shining,_ the white parts growing brighter and brighter with every second. 

In a blur, he stood and launched himself at Xemnas, who had to vanish and reappear a few meters away to dodge in time. Ventus landed and leaped again, forcing Xemnas farther and farther back from Lea. The glow from his Keyblade faded, but there was a palpable rage in his movements that made even the former leader of the Organization take pause. 

In the background, Sora and Saïx circled each other. Xion wasn’t seeing through her other’s eyes anymore, or those of her copy, though she was now connected to both. She could see everyone. Xion was hovering over the battlefield, a voiceless ghost, split between bodies and hearts. Behind Lea, Kairi managed to stand, but looked shaky. As Xemnas backed away, eyes narrowing, Ventus spun towards the former Nobody. And when the boy looked at him, Xion could tell he was thinking of ice cream and sunsets and the best friends he’d forgotten. 

“Axel.” 

The man’s response was a sharp intake of breath, followed by a weary grin and an almost aggressively casual drawl. “No more _‘Axel? Who’s Axel?’_ then? Looks like someone finally remembered.” 

Ventus matched his smile. “I'd got it memorized. Somewhere in here.” 

These dorks. Xion had missed them. But they didn’t take any more time with their reunion. They trained their gazes on her Replica. Oh no, no, no… 

_Yes,_ a part of her whispered, a voice that was getting louder by the second. Xion couldn’t pretend it wasn’t there. It had always been there. 

“Is it her?” 

Her Replica… her… her Replica… she was starting to lose track of the difference, now. The pull was becoming stronger and stronger. She watched it unfreeze and drop- or maybe Xion dropped- the Kingdom Key, which dematerialized, and it (she?) began to wail in pain and clutch its, or her, head. 

“I think it is. Or a copy.” 

At that, Ventus rushed towards his lost friend, and that was when Xion let go. She tried to leave Sora completely. Even if she risked Xemnas taking control again, she needed to be with her friends. They were here, really _here._

But Xion found that she couldn’t. She was still tethered to Sora, after all this time she couldn’t just up and leave because she wanted to. She needed something. Something of hers, something unique to her and her alone. But she’d given Sora everything. Everything except… 

Ventus had stopped just in front of her. He peered carefully at the hooded, blank figure. 

“Xion?” 

When Xion gasped, it was with her own mouth. 

Her heart was free of its prison at last. It overtook the feeble one occupying the Replica and cast it out, rejecting it as it had rejected her. And as it exited, Xion recognized it. 

It wasn’t a copy. It _was_ her heart, ripped from a time just after its creation and placed in this vessel. It barely qualified as a heart, and certainly wasn’t its own person. Not yet. Xemnas had made sure of that, despite that strange interference. But it wouldn’t be like that for long. Even if it wouldn’t remember, it had been exposed to her memories. Xion suspected that, like so much else in this winding tale, it was a paradox. She had become her own person because her heart had known that she was meant to. 

What a lovely idea. 

It faded back into the past. Xion felt sorry for all it would have to go through. But after an eternity, it’d be here. It’d reach the end of her long road, and it would grow and grow until she felt like she couldn’t possibly contain it. If dying had been agony, this was the reverse. Xion was coming back to life, taking back control of her own destiny, reaching out of the depths of darkness and slumber hoisted by the glimmering light of her own name. The name that even in her worst moments she had held tightly onto, refusing to surrender it, always believing that one day she’d need it again, though she’d never admitted that to herself. And she’d been right. 

She was _Xion._ And she could feel her new body becoming hers, molding to the shape her heart said was true. And solidly, this time. No more changing based on how she felt, or how others thought of her. She had defined herself, and even she couldn’t change the definition without having to work at it like any other real person. Xion threw back her hood one last time and smiled in the sunlight. 

She was _Xion._ And she had her friends here, though one was missing. She’d find her. She knew what she felt for her, and she, unlike Sora, had the skills of observation to recognize that Naminé returned her feelings. But for now, she basked in the warmth of knowing that right here were people who cared about her, to whom Xion had always been Somebody. 

She was _Xion._ And she was going to beat Saïx and Xemnas to death with the blunt end of her Keyblade. 

She summoned it, and sure enough, it had changed from her old self’s Kingdom Key to the proper, jet-black jagged blade. At some point within Sora, she’d learned that it was called Oblivion. A little heavy-handed, but right now, that suited Xion just fine. Rounding on a stunned Xemnas after taking just a moment to nod at an ecstatic Ventus, she swung with every bit of her strength, but he regained composure at the last moment and vanished. Oblivion thudded into the ground, sending up a cloud of dust. Suddenly, she heard Kairi cry out from behind her. 

Sora immediately broke off his duel with Saïx at the sound and dashed toward the source, stopping cold a few meters away. The raging Nobody made no attempt to follow, but Xion moved between them anyway, facing him down. She kept her Keyblade and half an eye trained on Saïx, but spun to see Xemnas holding the struggling Princess of Heart. He was about to step back into a dark corridor with her. Oh, _absolutely not._ Kairi had been a prisoner too many times already, she deserved to see this fight through. As much as if not more than Xion did. 

The man who’d held Xion captive in her own body scoffed. “What difference does-” 

She rushed him, not caring in the slightest about whatever nonsense he had to say. Xemnas wouldn’t get away with hurting anyone else on her watch, or for that matter be allowed to keep running his stupid mouth. But the moment she let her guard down, Saïx swatted her aside and she smacked into the wall with an _oof._

Ears ringing, she picked herself back up as fast as she could, but it was too late. Xemnas, and Kairi, were gone. Xion glared at Sora, Ventus, and Lea. They’d been closer to Kairi than her. They could have tried something. Anything. But that train of thought was interrupted by Saïx coming at her again, bringing his claymore down in an overhead arc. She raised Oblivion in time, but the two blades locked together, and now she was stuck in a battle of strength with the berserker. Not an optimal position to be in, Xion thought as her arms protested the effort of holding her Keyblade aloft against the massive weight bearing down on her. She fell down on one knee to brace herself. 

“Help me out here!” she called. “No, not you, Lea. Get some rest!” 

“Like hell! And call me Axel!” he yelled back. He tried to take a step towards her, but his legs gave out and he collapsed. “Okay,” Xion heard him groan. “Maybe just… a bit.” Ventus shot him a fond glance, then joined Sora in launching an assault on Saïx. The man grunted and leaped away from her, and Xion climbed to her feet. 

The three of them stood against the mad Nobody who’d spent so much time tormenting and insulting Xion’s old self. For a moment, everything was still, the two sides staring each other down. Then all four of them charged and the battle resumed. Xion was pretty sure there should be a dramatic soundtrack for this moment, so [she imagined one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MCLTqyL4WY). What a wonderful thing, imagination. Nobodies didn’t have the knack for it, but she didn’t qualify as a Nobody anymore. What she _did_ qualify as, she had no idea. There had probably never been anyone quite like her before, and Xion found she rather liked that. She wasn’t _anyone’s_ copy. She was like her old designation. Unknowable, incomprehensible, but undeniably something that _existed._ For everything else to make sense, she had to exist. For once, Xion found that she loved her name. 

She felt electrified, humming with energy and power. Her own power, not Sora’s, not Ventus’s. Life and light and yes, darkness too, surged through her. Her life, her light, her darkness. When Xion spoke, shouting warnings to her teammates, mocking Saïx as he so rightly deserved, it wasn’t in her old, soft near-monotone, or the biting anger or despair she’d shown at rare moments. It was the voice, Xion realized, she’d developed within Sora. She had developed as a person even while trying to revert to void. Her speech _bounced._ Flowing, varied, _alive_ in a way it never had been before. It was her voice, sure enough, but it sounded… 

Happy. 

Xion started to laugh as she fought, cackling and whooping as she drove the blue berserker back nearly single-handed. Sora looked a little alarmed, but Ventus was smiling and Axel bore an exhausted grin as he watched her from the sidelines. 

None of the three guardians of light could quite hold up against the man on their own. He was impossibly strong, and seemed to shrug off blows like he hadn’t even felt them. So they worked together, as if they were still all inhabiting one body. Xion took Saïx head on. He seemed to be even more enraged at the sight of her and answered her challenge. Perhaps he remembered that she’d taunted him as he lay dying after Sora slew him the first time. When he got the upper hand on her, Sora stepped in, intercepting what would have been a deadly swing of his weapon. And all the while, Ventus, who even after remembering his time as Roxas insisted on using that just so unbelievably _stupid_ technique with his messed-up Keyblade, harried and harassed Saïx from odd angles. Every now and then, the Nobody would turn and try to swat him, but Ventus was too fast. 

At one point, while Ventus had Saïx running ragged trying to catch him, Sora called, “Xion! So that’s your name?” 

“Yes, Sora. Yes it is.” She beamed at him. 

And then, with a roar, Saïx sent Ventus flying and was on her before she could respond, throwing her backwards. 

The blue claymore was millimeters from Xion’s face and creeping closer. She had reacted too late to bring up her Keyblade properly. The two weapons were hilt to hilt while she desperately tried to push his upward without any real leverage. 

“Once a puppet, always a puppet,” the scarred man snarled. “It cannot win, even against nothing at all.” 

Sora and Ventus rose up behind Saïx like avenging wraiths, and struck at the Nobody’s lower half, silver and black arcs sweeping through him. 

The berserker’s eyes finally showed pain, and his legs gave out. The claymore slipped out of his hands. Xion managed to nudge it sideways so it hit the dirt uselessly. Her Keyblade was free. Her enemy was kneeling before her. 

This was her moment. 

“You’re right about one thing. A puppet couldn’t do _this_ ,” Xion growled, and drove Oblivion through Saïx’s chest. 

There was no blood when she yanked her weapon out of him. That wasn’t how Keyblades worked. But something holding him together had been… well. Unlocked. It was a key, after all. The chains that secured his being were crumbling. The connection between his heart- or whatever he had that made him Saïx- and this Replica had been demolished, and now both were returning to nothing. 

Xion gave him a few moments to realize what had happened, in which he let out some horrible choking noises, trembled, and collapsed. He gasped for air, clawing at the dust with fingers that were turning into scraps of shadow. It wasn’t a fast process. After watching the pathetic display for a duration she deemed sufficient, she raised Oblivion again and stepped forward. 

This time, she’d go for the head. She’d shatter his already broken mind. 

“Xion! Stop!” 

She halted. “Axel?” 

He had staggered over, and almost fell back to the ground as he peered down at the dying Saïx. Xion caught him and propped him up, swapping her Keyblade to her other hand to keep it trained on her enemy. “Be careful. He might try something.” 

“He’s done, Xion. I need to talk to him.” 

“Are you sure?” She knew the two had history, but whoever Saïx was now, he wasn’t who Axel remembered. 

“Yes.” He stood up a little straighter, taking his weight off her. “Please… give us a moment.” 

“Fine,” Xion said, dismissing her Keyblade and turning away. Then she whirled back around and kicked Saïx in the ribs. He grunted in pain, and Axel winced. 

“Listen up, blue bastard. You pull something sneaky, and not only will I break you, I’ll hunt you down afterwards and do it again for every _single_ time you called me _it._ I’ve been through hell and come out stronger, I won’t hesitate to visit you there just to ensure they’re making you suffer to my satisfaction.” 

Hmm. Was this who she wanted to be? Probably not, as fun as that had been to say. At least, not after Xehanort was defeated. And he _would_ be defeated. Until then... she’d use every weapon at her disposal, every one of her new, suddenly so very vivid emotions. 

“I’ll… I’ll keep that… in mind, Xion.” The vanishing Nobody rasped. 

Saying her name didn’t earn him any points. In fact, it made Xion a little angrier. He didn’t deserve to speak to her, much less utter something so precious. But he was fading faster and faster, and Axel still needed to say whatever it was he needed to say. She backed off, keeping a careful eye on Saïx from afar as the two of them spoke. Ventus was looking at her a little wide-eyed. 

Soon enough, Saïx ended. Xion watched every last bit of shadow melt into nothing. Sora, always on the hunt for another battle to throw himself into, had already run off. Oh, right, she remembered. Kairi. Well, she was going to go after Xemnas next anyway. It could wait a moment, though. 

Xion, Axel, and Ventus stared at each other. They were all here. All alive. In a way, it hadn’t just been a long time, it had never happened before at all. 

“Guess I should have brought some ice cream, huh,” said Axel shakily. In this moment of rest, he just seemed drained. Emotionally and physically. Xion supposed he’d been close to Saïx once. And he had just watched his old friend die again, at the hands of his new friends. _After_ being soundly beaten (she, or at least this body, bore some responsibility for that, but considering their history, fair was fair) and having his Keyblade destroyed in front of him. It’d reform soon enough, but Axel was having a pretty rough day. Unlike her or Ventus. Both of them were actually doing pretty damn well all things considered. Xion was having the time of her life, because now she knew it was _her_ life. 

Something told Xion that she was supposed to be crying. But she didn’t feel like crying. She wasn’t sad. She was the happiest she’d ever been, the most _her_ she’d ever been. And what every bit of her wanted to do was rush over and hug these two idiots who had called her back from the dark. 

So she did. 

  


Soon after, she found herself fighting alongside Ventus and Riku. The latter was fighting Ansem, something he looked almost bored to be doing. Xion’s oldest friend took on the youngest version of Xehanort, and she faced down Xemnas with a cold fury. 

Far above, Sora and Mickey (seriously, _who was that_ , she’d missed her chance to find out as part of Sora and she’d have to ask, it was going to be so awkward) were attempting to get at Master Xehanort. The old man had summoned a barrier, and try as the two Keyblade heroes might, they couldn’t break it. They flailed helplessly against an impenetrable wall of darkness. 

Xemnas had not yet made a move to control her. Xion had a plan to deal with it if he did, but she wasn’t sure if she would succeed. It was all she could do to keep up with the warping and annoying laughter and _fucking hell so many lasers._ No one else got lasers. Or, at least, she conceded, not quite that many. It really wasn’t fair. 

Her concentration was broken by a cry of _“stop”_ from the Xehanort that had to be around Aqua’s age. Xion looked over in horror to see that Ventus was frozen in place, and now his enemy was calmly walking up to him. That dumbass. He could probably have avoided the spell if he wasn’t so insistent on fighting with his back turned half the time. 

Xion’s own opponent kept her too occupied to help him. Ventus unfroze and was sent flying, thudding into the dirt with a wheeze of pain. In an instant, his foe was over him again, raising his massive weapon for one final blow that would split her friend heart from body and cast both into shadow. 

In slow motion, she watched as young Xehanort brought his Keyblade down on Ventus. He wasn’t going to be able to dodge. Even if she took the immense risk of turning her back on the Nobody, Xion couldn’t get to him in time… but, she remembered something she’d done as part of Sora. And something Sora had done when she’d been a part of him. Maybe she could bring him to her, to save him. Even if it was just his heart, that would be enough for him to be restored easily later. 

It wasn’t that different from reaching out across Sora’s connection. Xion hadn’t realized just how many connections she had. Gripping Ventus’s, she pulled as hard as she could, trying to drag him to safety. 

She pulled a bit too hard. 

When everything stopped spinning, Xion was looking out from Ventus’s eyes. Or Ventus was looking out from Xion’s eyes. Or they were looking out from _the same eyes._

They were Xion, and they were Ventus. Ventus had been drawn into Xion again, they realized, and not just his heart. Their minds and bodies had become one as well. It wasn’t permanent, they felt that if they tried, it would be a simple matter to become two people again. But for right now… They were a single target. Harder to hit. And _they’d_ hit twice as hard, they thought, summoning Ventus’s Keyblade in their left hand. They’d done this all before, but this time, Xion and Ventus were united as equals. Two hearts, one person, one mind, all dead set on wiping out these yellow-eyed motherfuckers. 

What was their name? They had time to think about it. Both their opponents were struck dumb from incredulity, and even Ansem had paused in astonishment before Riku, shrugging off whatever they’d done as just another wild twist in a day of wild twists, took the opportunity to get in a sneaky hit. Whatever master plan the Xehanorts had, this new being didn’t think they’d figured into it. The end result might be the same, Kingdom Hearts would be summoned regardless, but they definitely enjoyed throwing a quick wrench into Xehanort’s expectations. Everyone’s expectations. 

For an instant, they thought _Roxi,_ but no, of course that wasn’t right. Names were important. A label could change the contents, if one wasn’t careful. 

_Veion._ Simple and elegant. And fairly androgynous. _They_ felt very right. 

They wondered idly what they looked like. Xion and Ventus would have to ask Riku later. Or if this was something they could manage to do again, they could just find a mirror. Veion didn’t think they’d be able to maintain this forever, nor did they want to. They were two separate people, after all, with their own lives and hearts. But for this fight- the two Xehanorts charged, and they stopped both attacks cold- they were perfectly happy to be as one again. 

Like this, and the Xion part of them groaned at the realization while the Ventus half whooped, Ventus’s hideous backwards Keyblade actually _worked._ Veion took on the young Xehanort and Xemnas by themselves, whirling and dodging and weaving through the battle. There were no gaps to be found in their defense, and their assault was relentless. From behind, Ventus’s Keyblade deflected any attempt from the teenage villain to interfere. And in front, Oblivion came for Xemnas, driving the one-time leader of the Organization back. 

Then, something happened that they’d been waiting for. The body Xion had gained, though it was hers now, had originally been a Replica of her from soon after her creation. And even as Veion, the marionette strings were still there. Xemnas reached for them, lifting a hand… 

And when he did, Veion took hold of the strings and tore their way into _Xemnas’s_ mind. Their combined power and fury overrode his cold resolve, and they made him, before he could even try to fight back, warp behind his younger counterpart and run him through. 

That was symbolic, probably. Slain by his own hand, sending himself back to walk the path his future self had laid out. Veion didn’t feel sympathy for Xehanort. How could they? But it occurred to them that his choices were etched into this mess of a timeline. In fact, they suspected that his choices defined what the timeline was, with no room for variation of any significance. The details could change, maybe. In another world, Xion could have lost the duel with Roxas, and all this might be different for her. But not for Xehanort, not really. What a sad existence that must be. 

All the more reason to end it, they supposed, as young Xehanort turned to smoke. His presence was limiting the worlds, binding them to his desires and assumptions. Without him, reality could grow in every direction, encompassing anything anyone could possibly imagine. 

These were strange thoughts. Neither Xion nor Ventus had the perspective to draw these conclusions, but Veion could cross-reference everything the two of them had experienced, including a whole host of information from Ventus’s buried memories that until this moment had still been lost. And more than that, they slowly became aware that their combined recollections seemed to include things that hadn’t happened. Or at least, hadn’t happened in this version of events. Their mind went to an odd memory, where it was Xion fading away below the clock tower, and Roxas leaning over her. 

Had he really said… uh, wow. And Xion had thought Sora was the one best suiting the word “buffoon.” 

Embarrassment welled up in Veion from both sides. But they were sidetracked from pondering alternate timelines when Xemnas’s will surged against theirs, seeking vengeance for his fallen compatriot. 

They didn’t bother trying to fight Xemnas for control of his mind. They didn’t know that they would win, and besides, that isn’t how they _wanted_ to win. They let him push them out, and did not resist as he destroyed the marionette strings himself with a snap of his fingers. 

“So, the puppet and the lost boy have-” Yeah, no. Shut _up,_ Xemnas. Whatever monologue he’d planned was interrupted by a grunt of effort as he was forced to block both Veion’s Keyblades, one after the other. 

Warping away, he trapped them in a sphere of glowing red dots. They’d seen this attack before. He’d used it against both Sora and Axel. It didn’t scare them. It meant he was getting desperate. 

One by one, the points of energy rocketed towards them, and one by one, Veion deflected each of them. It was a simple matter. Sora and Riku had done it as two people easily enough, and Veion had an advantage. The concept of a fixed “now” was a little… fuzzy for them, in both directions. They remembered which ones were going to strike, and danced through the storm effortlessly. When Xemnas growled and sent every remaining laser towards them at once, Veion spun, collected the shards of power on their Keyblades, and sent them spiraling towards their foe. 

He stood back, up, smoking, in time to see them approaching him at speed, twin weapons flashing. The leader of the Organization projected a barrier in front of him. They didn’t slow down. 

It was time for Veion, and Xemnas, to _split._

Xion dodged to the left, while Ventus sidestepped to the right, around the barrier. In one simultaneous motion, the two of them leapt towards Xemnas, passing each other and sending their Keyblades tearing through his body in one lightning fast sweep. 

His low gasp of pain came alongside a scream of rage from Ansem, as Riku stabbed his Keyblade through the heart of his enemy. The Xehanorts fell, kneeling in the dirt. 

The young Keyblade Master dispatched his old puppeteer quickly. It was their turn. 

“Together?” Xion asked. 

“Together,” echoed Ventus. 

”Together,” said Veion. 

They crossed their two weapons around their former leader’s neck. 

“I… I _feel_ …” 

They didn’t care. Veion swiped their Keyblades through him one last time, and Xemnas burst into shadows which disintegrated into nothing. He was gone, at last. For good. 

“Um.” 

Veion turned, dismissing their Keyblades. Axel was standing there, face pale, like he was about to faint. He looked as though he was barely holding onto sanity. And behind him were two others with similar expressions. Xion and Ventus’s mutual friend spoke shakily. “…Guys? Is that… what the _fuck._ ” 

Veion grinned and said, “Hey, Axel. Terra. Aqua. Been-” 

They unfused. 

“-a hell of a day, huh,” Xion finished, in unison with Ventus. 

Aqua started laughing hysterically. The man that Xion had learned from Ventus’s memories to be Terra sighed, looking at Ventus like he just didn’t know what to do with him anymore. And Axel fell over backwards, making the other two catch him. 

  


It was over. Xehanort was gone. But so was Kairi, and Sora had chased after her. 

Unlike Xehanort, Kairi was somewhere. Xion knew that, and she’d told Sora before his final battle. She’d stayed out of it. Kingdom Hearts needed to be contained, and unlike him, she knew which fights were hers and which weren’t. That’s why he was the hero, and she was not. She was fine with that. 

Xion wasn’t certain if Kairi would make it. A tentative attempt to pull the other girl to her failed. The connection was far too weak to work across worlds, assuming that was at all possible. She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to do it with Kairi if she was right next to her. She’d never been nearly as close to her as she was to her Nobody. 

Her Nobody. 

Xion stared into the endless field of broken Keys for some time. Maybe… 

It didn’t take long to find her, drifting in the darkness between dimensions. And of course, the link was more than strong enough. Xion felt _certain_ she could pull the Nobody to her if she tried. 

Xion stopped. Naminé didn’t have a body right now, and Xion doubted she could create one. Doing it like this would freak her out. And that wasn’t what she wanted their reunion to be. Instead, across realities, she whispered to her: 

_We’re coming for you._

Naminé’s heart murmured sleepily in response. 

Someone clapped Xion on the back, and she jumped. For a moment, she almost lashed out with her Keyblade when she saw the shape of his face, and then she took in his full appearance. Brown hair. Not silver. She relaxed. 

“Xion, right? Hey, Ven sent me over to fetch you. He seemed to think we’d get along.” 

Xion vaguely remembered, piecing together information she’d taken from Sora and still retained from being Veion, that Terra had spent the last _decade_ as Xehanort’s vessel. His body had been Xemnas, his heart had been Ansem’s weapon. Poor bastard. Still, what was Ventus thinking? She didn’t know this guy. 

“Because we were both puppets? That's not-” 

“No,” said Terra, a hint of amusement in his voice. “Apparently, we both have a violent streak.” 

Oh. _Dammit._ It was going to be hard to argue with Ventus about that sort of thing, now that they’d shared a mind and body. Again. 

“C’mon. I don’t really know what’s going on, and they promised to catch me up, but right now? I need a nap. It’s been about ten years.” 

Xion wasn’t sure she’d _ever_ taken a nap. Been in a coma for weeks, ceased to exist for whole spans of time, and been harassed by uncontrolled memories at night, sure. But a nap? That was new. 

She voiced this, and Terra laughed. It sounded rusty. “Then come with us. We’re going to some wizard’s tower. I think I met him once? Whatever. He’d better be able to conjure a mattress, or I’m passing out on his floor.” 

Following him, Xion looked around at all the others, seeing a mixture of relief and worry… and, for some reason, what appeared to be a second Riku in a bizarre outfit. If he’d been there before, she hadn’t noticed. He looked somewhat younger and extremely nervous. Xion was far too tired to be curious about this. 

  


Yen Sid, whoever that was exactly, had indeed managed to conjure places for everyone to sleep before heading to his office to speak with Mickey- Xion _still_ had never found time to ask what that creature was, though she thought Veion had known- at length. New rooms could appear and disappear at his desire, and it was a simple matter for him to provide somewhere to rest. She’d thank him later. 

Xion laid alone, in a room that every time she looked, appeared more and more like the one she’d had in the fake Twilight Town. It made sense. That was the only real “bedroom” she’d ever had, and this place liked to suit its occupants. 

She didn’t want to sleep. She didn’t want to dream. 

Dream… 

What if this was all another dream? What if when she woke, she’d be still trapped inside Sora? What if this was what happened every time she stopped existing, and at any moment, she could be torn away back into reality? And even if this was reality, what were she supposed to _do_ now? 

Soft footsteps rang out, and Xion shifted to see Ventus kneel down next to her. He’d retreated to the room next to hers, somehow also tired despite his ten-year rest. She sat up, and he spoke. “Hey. I thought you were over here getting upset.” 

“I can’t even _mope_ without you knowing now? I should never have saved you like that.” 

He shook his head. “No, Xion, I didn’t _sense_ anything. You make these noises when you’re overwhelmed or distressed or whatever. Like, little stuttering whines, instead of actually crying. You were doing it after we fought Saïx. Didn’t you have a dog once? I think he rubbed off on you.” 

Xion wanted to kick him, but that would just prove him right about her “violent streak.” 

Thinking about this further, she decided she didn’t care, and kicked him anyway. 

“Ow.” He wasn’t hurt. Xion hadn’t put any force behind the blow. “So what’s up? We won. Sora will be back with Kairi in no time. Everything is fine.” 

She sighed. “Maybe. I just… I was so happy to exist again. But the idea of existing tomorrow? And the day after that? And next _month?_ It sounds so exhausting. I might be… uh… sixteen-ish? But really, I’ve only _lived_ for like, a year.” 

Ventus had a faraway look in his eyes. “I’ve lost a lot of my life. I think I remembered all of it when we were Veion, but then it slipped away again. I don’t mind too much. I still lived it. And if I’m meant to remember, I will.” 

“Really? You’re happy with that?” 

“Why shouldn’t I be? I remembered you and Axel when I needed to.” 

She smiled, and Ventus got up to leave. 

“No,” Xion said, grabbing his hand. “Stay.” 

“Okay.” 

Naps? Good. Naps with a friend next to her? Definitely one of the best things about being alive, Xion thought as she drifted off. 

And for once, she didn’t dream. 

  


The first order of business was obvious, and Xion, Ventus, and Axel went to Radiant Garden. Aqua came too, saying she had to fetch something of hers, and split off from the rest of them on arrival. 

Xion didn’t quite trust Zexion- wait, no, Ienzo- at first. He’d been Organization. But the two of them had never really interacted, and he seemed dead set on bringing Naminé back. That was enough for her to make peace with him. 

Ansem the Wise, on the other hand. DiZ. Now there was a man she wanted words with. Or maybe, not words. 

Okay. It was possible that she had a violent streak. 

However, she didn’t show it this time. When the old man saw her, he _cried._ Full on blubbered, apologizing and begging Xion’s forgiveness for all that he’d said and done to both of them. She didn’t absolve him. Not right away. But she helped pick him up off the ground. And she didn’t break any limbs. 

Or lay a hostile hand on him at all. She was a little surprised by that, herself. Then again… this man had also been trying to restore the person Xion wanted more than anything to see. If he pulled it off, she’d forgive him. And she _had_ promised herself that she'd try to restrain herself in that regard. She was still settling, learning to deal with the intensity of being a Somebody. Xion didn't think that rage was something she should encourage in herself. 

If he ever called her _it_ again, though… she knew where he slept. Well, no, she didn’t. But she would find out. 

Now, she stood over a blank Replica. It was kind of unnerving, thinking that she and at this point a decent few among her comrades had once been one of these featureless vessels. Then again, what did appearance matter? It was the heart that counted. Xion knew that better than most. 

“We’re nearly ready,” said Ienzo, absolutely buzzing in his element. “We just need to establish a link between the vessel, baited with data from the time she entered the other Twilight Town, and the host’s original heart. That may be difficult without her Somebody, so I was planning to wait until-” 

No. The look in her eye made him stop midsentence. “I can bring her here. Right now. If I do, and then release her, will she end up in the Replica? Will it become her?” 

“Well, yes, theoretically, but how do you intend to-” 

Xion ignored whatever else he had to say and focused on a connection that, while just as strong as a couple of others, felt a little different than any of them. 

After whispering something she knew Naminé wouldn’t hear, she pulled. 

For the briefest of moments, she wasn’t just Xion. But Naminé’s heart was weak, and whoever this was, she couldn’t maintain herself. But that was fine, Xion thought as she became herself again, that was the idea. 

And then the Replica in front of her lit up brightly, forcing her, as much as she tried to fight the instinct, to look away. 

When the light faded, Naminé was there, sleeping peacefully. 

She was here. Completely and truly _here,_ and as real as real can be. Both of them were, for the first time in their brief existences. 

Xion took an unconscious step forward, but in what was a remarkable act of bravery on his part, Ienzo moved between her and Naminé. “She’ll be out for a while. In the meantime…” His eyes sparkled, and he raised a notepad. “Please, I need to know what you did. It may be an entirely new power of the heart, something we’ve never seen before-” 

She really didn't want to sit down and have a chat with him about this. “Call me when she’s up. _As soon as_ she’s up. Or just before, if you can manage it.” Then Xion walked out, despite Ienzo’s protests. 

  


The overeager scientist summoned her not too long afterwards. Xion had spent the intervening time getting, for the first time in her life, _real clothes._ Initially, she had hesitated to accept Aqua’s help. She wanted something simple, and while the Master’s outfit was undeniably excellent, it wasn’t anything that could be called simple. However, Aqua had no real trouble limiting herself, and soon enough Xion was dressed in a black blouse and grey skirt. The whole affair had slightly too many buttons and a rather unnecessary belt, but considering what some of the more exotic denizens of Radiant Garden were wearing, it was probably the best she was going to be able to do. She was also a fan of the boots. She’d modified her Organization shoes to be heeled back in the day, similar to Larxene’s, but she’d never actually liked them. It had just been the only thing she could really do at the time to be… herself. Xion didn’t need to take those kinds of extreme measures anymore. No one was making her wear a heavy coat all the time. It felt weird to have skin showing, to be unable to hide her face if she needed to. 

Wait, not weird. That wasn’t the word. 

The word was _wonderful._

Axel, being slightly more intelligent than Sora or Ventus in these matters, had picked up on what her aggressively restrained nervousness meant, and shooed an objecting Ienzo out of the room. Shortly thereafter, Naminé began to stir. 

Since she couldn’t possibly think of anything more appropriate, Xion said, “Hey.” 

Naminé’s eyes opened as a smile crept across her face. “Hey.” 

But when Naminé began to sit up and look around the room, her gaze fell on Axel. She stiffened. 

Xion had never seen Naminé angry. They had been Nobodies, after all. Maybe they’d had hearts, but emotions were still difficult to come by. The fury on her face more than anything proved that, like Xion, Naminé was no longer a Nobody. It also proved that Xion was completely hopeless. Holy _shit._

Naminé raised a hand, and immediately Axel shuddered and fell to one knee. 

Did she think... Xion managed to get herself under control. “Naminé! It’s okay. He’s with us.” 

“I can see that,” Naminé hissed out, “and I can also see he now has ties to Sora. Which means I can do _this._ ” 

Axel gasped and clutched his head. “I’m… I’m sorry,” he managed. “I was awful to you. Back then.” 

“Hmm,” Naminé intoned, as Xion rounded on Axel. 

“What did you do to her?” 

An increasingly panicked Ventus spoke up. “Everyone, please, calm down! Xehanort’s gone! We’ve all made mistakes here, but-” 

“I haven’t, at least not ones that hurt people other than me,” Xion said. “And I have yet to see evidence that she has.” 

Suddenly, Naminé let go. Axel sagged, and Ventus had to catch him. “No, I have,” said the witch. “More than you know, Xion. And one of them I made just now.” She stood, brushing past Xion and helping Axel up. “I’m sorry. But I had to make sure. You’ve been a good friend to them, despite everything. You’re forgiven.” 

“Th-thank you,” stuttered out Axel. He took a moment to wipe away a tear- of pain or otherwise- as smoothly as he could. “Hey, Ventus. Let’s give these two a moment.” 

“But why-” 

“Come _on,_ Ven.” He led the protesting boy out the door, leaving Xion alone with Naminé. 

“Do you know… about Kairi?” Xion didn’t want to keep bad news from her. Her voice had become soft again, to her surprise, though it still sounded much more alive than it had as a Nobody. She'd been imitating Sora's boisterousness, and even though she'd been trying to contain it, there had been a sharp edge to her speech, borne from fury over all that she had to suffer. But here and now, she felt some of that anger drain away. An old wound began to heal. 

Naminé nodded. “She’s not gone. I was torn away from her, but she’s not gone.” 

“And Sora?” 

“No?” Her eyes narrowed. “What has he done? I put a lot of work into fixing him the first time.” 

Xion told her, and she sighed. 

“That sounds about right.” 

“Yeah. I'm glad we aren’t stuck as part of them.” Naminé froze, and Xion panicked. She hadn’t actually considered… “Do you. Is that. Is that still something you want?” 

Still the wrong thing to say. Naminé burst into tears. Oh, no. What had she done? 

But she wasn’t mad at her. Instead, Naminé took her hand and squeezed. “I… I never really wanted to go. I just thought. I thought it was what we had to do. I thought… _DiZ_ made me think…” 

She turned to Xion, cheeks sparkling in the cold light of the laboratory. “I was hoping you would say something, when we returned to them together. To stop it. To ask them to, if they could, help us.” 

Xion laughed. “I was hoping _you’d_ say something.” 

“Wow.” Naminé smiled through her tears. “We really are _their_ Nobodies, aren’t we.” 

“No, we’re our own Somebodies. It’s just that spending too much time around Sora will make anyone a little stupid. The trick is, it works on villains too.” 

Naminé smiled again, but was still sniffling. She needed a distraction. Something to cheer her up. 

“Oh, of course,” Xion said, making herself pull her hand away. “There’s something I want you to see.” 

  


Presently, Xion returned with her friend, and Naminé, now resting on the slab she’d woken up on, smiled when she entered the room. Xion gave her a grin in return, almost tripping as she walked to her side and sat down next to her. 

"I have something to show you. Kairi didn’t see it, so I don’t think you would have either.” 

“Oh?” 

“It’s... a lot. I’m not entirely certain how it works, but I guess if Sora’s powers let him send himself to others, tracking them down across worlds, then it makes sense that mine would… or maybe it’s because I was _made_ to… Wait, I don’t actually care. Just watch.” 

Naminé gave her a teasing shove. “Well, go on then!” 

Xion broke eye contact with her to find that Ventus was looking back and forth between the two of them. His expression changed slowly from puzzlement to surprise to… 

She glared at him, and his smile vanished. He avoided meeting her eyes, very interested in the surrounding lab equipment all of a sudden. But Xion could see the edges of his mouth twitching. 

That meant Sora was the only one still sitting at zero in terms of awareness of this sort of thing. He’d have to catch up fast, or Kairi and Riku would end up killing him. Assuming this little escapade of his didn’t. But right now, Xion had other things to focus on. 

She made a _wait here_ motion at Naminé and slipped over to Ventus. “Hey,” she said quietly. “Do the Veion thing with me?” 

Ventus became alert, scanning their surroundings, as if she’d just said that they were about to be attacked. “Why?” 

“They wanted to find out what they looked like,” Xion whispered. “She’s an artist.” 

“Oh. Yeah, sure! Ready?” 

Xion turned towards Naminé. “Get ready, and if you feel up to it… maybe draw what you see?” 

Seconds later, they were Veion, and seconds after that, Xion was herself again, rushing over to Naminé’s side. They had unfused so fast that Ventus had smacked into some computer terminal from the force of the division. Whoops. She’d have to apologize for that. 

The expression on Naminé’s face had not been one she’d been expecting. Incredulity, shock, or bemusement, sure. But not immediate and extreme distress. 

“Naminé!” 

The moment Xion was within reach, Naminé took hold of her arm. Tightly. “Xion, I… I’m sorry, I… you just _disappeared._ Became part of someone else, again. I couldn’t… I didn’t… It scared me. So much.” 

“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think.” Xion looked up to see Ventus leaving the room and mouthed _sorry_ to him. He shrugged and responded in kind, _later._ She turned her attention back to Naminé. “You’re not going to lose me. I promise. I’m here to stay.” 

“Thank you, Xion.” 

Xion and Naminé talked, and talked, about nothing and everything. 

A young man in a lab coat burst into the lab a few minutes later. “We got some incredible readings from this room after you and Ventus went in a while ago, our instruments were going haywire, what did-” 

“Go away, Ienzo,” said two voices in unison. 

  


Naminé had decided to stay in the castle to rest for a while. Xion had informed her that Ansem the Wise was around, if wholly repentant, and she’d nodded. “I’ll hear him out,” she’d said. 

So now Xion were walking around Radiant Garden with Axel and Ventus, while the former was trying to convince her that the man who was arguably her worst enemy had reformed when he’d, well, reformed. 

“No, I don't think so.” 

“Xion, please. He just… he just got caught up in it all. He was jealous of our friendship and took it out on you and Roxas. He admitted as much.” 

“Maybe, but _it_ isn’t a great thing to be called, Axel.” 

“I know, but… you did kind of kill him. And, while I entirely understand why, _brutally._ Can’t you call it square?” 

Xion gave this idea careful consideration. “He will say the following: ‘I’m sorry, Miss Xion.’ And then I will punch him anyway, and after _that_ , we’ll be square.” 

Axel looked relieved. “Thank you.” 

“But if he-” 

“He won’t.” 

“Good. Then I won’t.” 

Suddenly, she stopped. Xion could see her reflection in a passing window. And besides the fact that she looked _very_ good, it meant she could find out something. 

“Ven.” 

The boy returned from whatever plane of reality he’d been spacing out to while Axel had been talking to her. “What?” 

Xion indicated the window. Behind it, some spiky-haired guy with an impractically large sword strapped to his back eyeballed the three passerby who had paused in front of what appeared to be a coffee shop. There were an alarming number of people matching that description around, she’d observed. This place was strange. 

It took him a moment, but he got there. "Oh, right!" He took a step towards her. 

“Wait, are you two going to…” Axel looked pale. Xion remembered how Naminé had reacted. 

“Don’t worry, Axel. It’s easily undone. And Ven, why don’t you try to do it this time?” Xion had been meaning to find out if it was something unique to her, or just something she’d discovered. 

“What? How?” 

She described how she did it, though she got the impression that Ventus was barely following. He screwed up his eyes and focused… and thirty seconds passed with absolutely nothing happening. “It’s okay, Ven.” 

He grinned sheepishly. “Looks like it’s your thing. Go ahead.” 

Moments later, they were Veion. 

They were, as they’d felt, fairly androgynous. Their clothes had melded together sensibly. Their skin tone was somewhere between Xion’s and Ventus’s, and while the difference was slight, they had one eye from each counterpart. Both sides of them agreed this was pretty cool. As for their hair, it was almost randomly split into sections of blonde and black, with one side being a decent bit straighter than Ventus’s and then spiking up dramatically on the other. It honestly didn’t look that great. But they couldn’t have everything, they supposed. 

Turning away from the window, behind which the man with the sword had spat out his drink, Veion made the decision to not try to sift through Ventus’s old memories. It was kind of a lot, and they were already starting to get a headache trying to keep themselves in the present. Without something to focus on, something to _fight_ , this really wasn’t sustainable. But for now, they walked onward, leaving a stunned Axel to catch up. 

“Guys, uh… do you. Know who I am?” 

Veion laughed. “Axel, I've got you memorized in every single timeline.” And they did. While the branches of possibility weren’t infinite- something which made them a little worried that something, if not Xehanort, was still limiting them- they had expanded dramatically since before his defeat. It was beginning to be overwhelming fast. They located a bench and sat down, and their friend joined them. 

“How does it feel… Veion?” Xion had told him their name earlier. 

“Pretty neat.” They decided not to elaborate on the timeline thing. Axel’s expression when they’d said that had been one of considerable consternation. “Xion and Ventus have been friends through so much, and have a decent amount in common. I’m more or less those bonds personified.” 

That much, was true. As for the ability itself… Xion had been made by the Organization to do something very similar, yes? Sora had used that power on his companions temporarily, and Veion hazarded the guess that he’d been able to do so because Xion had been a part of him. Xion had simply perfected her power, that’s all, and it had grown much stronger when she did. She didn’t just combine herself with Ventus. She’d combined _every_ Xion with _every_ Ventus, reaching into the void of infinite possibility and making those possibilities real. 

Lost in thought, Veion didn’t hear Axel’s response. Something was bothering them. In some cases, they had Roxas’s memories too. In others, they didn’t. This led to an alarming conclusion, which crept up on them and in a flash split them apart. 

Xion turned to Ventus, breathing heavily. “There were. There were times when he was his own person. And because of what I did…” 

Despite her distress, Axel looked relieved to have the two of them back. Ventus took her hands in his. “Listen to me, Xion. Roxas did what I would have done, because I was him. You didn’t do anything like what I would have done, or what Sora would have done. Maybe I would have splintered, if I’d taken you into me, if I’d had the time to develop within Sora like you did. But for my entire existence as Roxas in _this_ reality, I was always me, even when I didn’t remember. And you were always you, even when you thought you were someone else.” 

Xion wasn’t sad, hearing this. But this time, she cried anyway. Truly, properly cried. She’d earned it. 

  


There was one more thing she had to discuss, and Xion decided to do so as she, Ventus, Terra, Axel, and Aqua were wandering Twilight Town together a few hours later. Naminé had elected to stay in Radiant Garden for a while, and get used to being her own person again. Xion had offered to stay with her, but she’d insisted that “by herself” was kind of the point. “Later,” she’d promised. 

The subject she was going to raise was of critical importance. Possibly the most necessary conversation to occur in this entire eon-spanning saga of light and darkness and hearts. She waited until the three older Keyblade wielders were having some discussion of their own, then spoke up. “Ventus?” 

“Yes?” 

“You know that I care about you very much.” Xion kept her voice completely deadpan. 

He blinked. “…Yes?” 

“We need to talk about how you hold your Keyblade, Ventus.” 

“What?” He flushed. 

“It’s bad, Ventus.” 

“No! No,” he protested, starting to laugh. “It’s cool.” 

“Ventus. Ven, listen to me. I’m your friend, and friends listen to each other when one says the other is being an idiot. And while I’m certainly a fan of the upgrade to its appearance, which was _also_ bad, you look just. Unbelievably stupid when you hold it like that. When you were Roxas, you didn’t do that. I’m not sure I’d have been your friend if you did. Fighting with a stick was one thing, but that? That's the worst." 

She was (almost) entirely kidding, of course, and he knew that. “That’s because _Roxas_ didn’t remember how cool it looked.” 

“Ventus, _please._ ” From behind her, Xion picked up the sound of someone just barely failing to hold back a laugh, and she spun to find Aqua with her hand over her mouth. On either side of her, Terra and Axel were grinning. “Hey, Keyblade Master. You’ve had to put up with this boy for much longer. Back me up here.” 

The older girl lowered her hand to reveal a smile. “I can’t possibly comment.” 

“I can,” Terra said, sounding every bit like a teasing older brother. “Ven, she’s right.” 

Even Axel chimed in. “Yeah, Ven. I thought it was silly back when I first met you, and _I_ was wielding two frisbees.” 

“I hate you guys,” choked out Ventus, laughing so hard tears were streaking down his face. “I hate you so much.” 

“Ven,” Xion said, starting to giggle uncontrollably herself. “Ven. The Keyblade goes in _front_ of you, Ven.” 

“Honestly, Ven, I never had the heart to say it, but…” 

“I’m with her. I certainly wouldn’t have been your friend if you’d committed that atrocity as Roxas.” 

“I know I’m not one to talk, but you _definitely_ had some traces of darkness in you, no matter what Xehanort said he did. Only a monster would do that to a poor Keyblade.” 

But Ventus wouldn’t budge. Well, then, Xion supposed she had another cause to fight for. And she would, come fire and fury and having to deal with this lovable doofus every day of her life. 

  


To her utter amazement, someone called her name as she walked through the town. “Xion!” 

She spun to see… Hayner, Pence, and Olette. For a moment, she felt a wave of spine-chilling terror, then realized that the data versions must have been taken from actual people. Xion _was_ in the real world. But then how the hell did they know her name? 

“How do you…” Xion gaped. 

“Long story," said Olette. "This, uh, might sound crazy, but we know we were all friends in that other Twilight Town. Do you know anything about that? And, I don’t know, you think you might want to try again?” 

“...Yes. Yes, I’d enjoy that.” 

Xion hadn’t planned to have a full seven people with her as they all made their way up to the clock tower, guiding the only two who hadn’t been before. But it was nice. 

Talking to Hayner, Pence, and Olette was unbelievably strange, but Xion found that she liked them. She’d liked them in data form, and the real versions were, well, more _real._ More… them. Every trait was exaggerated, including Hayner’s hot-headedness and imbecility, apparently. 

“Wait. _Who_ did you try to land a _flying kick_ on? Describe him.” 

“Tall, long silver hair with weird spikes, voice like a cartoon antagonist, like… the kind who talks for an hour while the protagonists go about defeating him. Oh, and he summoned a giant shadow monster. It owned Hayner.” 

“Not cool, bro.” 

Her mouth had fallen open at Pence’s words. “You… you attacked _Ansem._ He could have destroyed you. Torn you heart from body and then reduced both to _ashes._ ” 

Hayner shrugged. “It worked out all right, though!” 

Slowly, the story came out, mostly from Olette as the other two bickered. How they’d suddenly remembered her all at once, how they’d started investigating the old mansion and rescued Ansem the Wise. How they’d determined that the Organization had recently made a copy of her, and started broadcasting the data recovered from the other Twilight Town computer terminal at her Replica, trying to wake up her real heart. Xion had been trying so hard to prevent Sora from reaching her, and meanwhile others had been hard at work trying to bring her back. 

She wasn’t quite sure how she’d managed to contact them. Her consciousness had been spread so thinly around that time, and her memory of it was dim. But if her understanding was correct, a little bit of everyone existed in everyone they were connected to. She must have, if only for an instant, brought that connection to life while drifting aimlessly in the void. 

Xion was real to more people than she’d ever realized. 

  


The Twilight Town kids had struck up a conversation with Ventus, and they were getting along like a house on fire. In case Axel joined them, Xion should probably have Aqua standing by. So that was who she was talking to now. It finally gave her the chance to ask about the armor pieces Aqua and her friends wore. “They’re really pretty. But are they actually useful? Doesn’t seem like they cover much…” 

The Keyblade Master grinned at her, and without a word, brought her right hand up to her left forearm. In a flash of light, she was completely covered in armor. 

Armor. 

Armor just like… 

Xion didn’t really know what happened. The next thing she knew, she was dangling off the clock tower, with Aqua’s plated hand grasping hers. In her other hand was her Keyblade, which she didn’t remember summoning. She looked up. 

And flinched, almost yanking herself out of Aqua’s grip. 

“Xion!” Aqua cried, muffled through her helmet, and her alarm was echoed by the others who were converging on the two of them. Xion barely heard them, transfixed by the oh-so-familiar armor Aqua was wearing. That was a bad memory, especially in this place… 

“I’ll grab her in the air!” she heard Terra call, and he put a foot on the ledge. Xion watched in slow motion as he started to raise his right hand to the opposite shoulder. Oh _no…_

“Terra, no! Aqua, get rid of your armor, for fuck’s sake!” 

She’d never been more relieved to hear that voice. Ven’s friends obeyed without hesitation, and shortly after Xion was pulled back onto the ledge. It was a lot easier now that her mind and body weren’t screaming at her to get away at any cost from the person holding onto her. 

A short explanation later (which Terra had looked increasingly uncomfortable during), followed by a prolonged, inescapable hug from Ventus, she had relaxed and was now mostly embarrassed. She’d damn near gotten herself killed, and Sora was already off trying to reconstruct one of their comrades. 

After assuring everyone she was alright, Xion turned to the older girl again. “Um. It did look really cool, it was just a surprise. It’s okay,” she added as Aqua tried to apologize. “You couldn’t have known. So what does it do? I know what it did for _me_ , but I don’t think…” She trailed off. 

“It’s supposed to keep darkness out. So you can travel in the lanes between worlds by yourself with minimal risk,” explained Aqua. 

“Keep darkness out? Mine definitely didn’t work, then.” 

She grimaced. “Terra had something similar happen, actually. His armor didn’t protect him from darkness that came from within. But he’s alright now, after everything. And so are you.” 

Xion smiled. “So… how did you make it?” 

“My Master taught me. It’s just another extension of the Keyblade, really.” 

Hmm. Despite Xion’s initial response to seeing it again, she was beginning to imagine just how damn excellent having armor of her own- _really_ her own- would be. It wouldn’t be easy… but she would have help. She had people to rely on. “Do you think you could show me?” 

Looking thoughtful, Aqua responded, “No… maybe? It was a long time ago. Longer for me than anyone, I think. It’s a lot to remember.” 

“Master Aqua?” 

“Yes?” 

_“Remember.”_

She laughed. “Alright, alright! Now that I think about it, there’s probably some information on it back home somewhere. I know Ven wanted to show you around sometime… Maybe we could all go together?” 

“I'd love that.” 

Xion was already planning what she wanted her armor to look like. Black and violet, she thought… and sleek. Certainly nothing like that garish pink and gold clown suit she’d worn while under Xemnas’s control. And maybe a cape? No. No capes. That’d be overdoing it. 

When Aqua answered her question about what Terra had meant by “grab her in the air,” she had something else to plan, too. And get very, _very_ excited about. Xion was beginning to see why everyone wanted to be a Keyblade Master so badly. 

These thoughts were interrupted by something coming between her and the light of the sunset. Something angular, colorful, and a little silly-looking. 

  


They’d sent her out from the ship to get Naminé. Riku had tried to come too, but Ventus had intercepted him. That boy learned fast. 

Xion found Naminé sitting in a park, eyes closed, enjoying the sunlight. She opened her eyes when she heard someone approach, and the smile she gave Xion almost melted her. 

Seconds passed. Xion needed to say something. She was supposed to fetch her for the beach party, she couldn’t just stand here staring at her all day. 

But wow, she totally _could._

“Hey, listen girl, we’re-” 

Naminé gave her a look, and she shut her mouth. _“Girl?”_

Oh fuck. “I’m sorry I just kind of said it I don’t know why I didn’t know what else to say I-” She stopped babbling, Naminé was _beaming._ The sight stole her breath away and ran off with it. 

“No, no. It’s… cute. I don’t mind.” 

Xion knew right then that this girl could kill her all over again and she’d _thank_ her. Oh, no… her face was definitely growing hotter by the second. And was it her imagination, or had Naminé’s much paler complexion reddened just a touch? 

Wait. These were stupid thoughts. Xion knew perfectly well what Naminé felt for her. She just had trouble believing it, sometimes. 

She managed to stutter through an explanation and, still smiling, Naminé followed her back to the ship. 

  


So here she was at the beach. At long, long last. She’d had memories of the place as a Nobody… and maybe she’d been here once, then? Xion still wasn’t sure about some of the things that had happened in those first few months of her existence. 

It didn’t matter. She was here now. 

Naminé had gone off to talk to others, which of course Xion didn’t mind. She spotted her speaking to Donald and Goofy, looking apologetic. She’d deconstructed their memories too, after all. She’d relayed her guilt about that to Xion while the two of them were talking in the lab, along with so much else. 

Instead, after doing exactly as she’d promised to Isa, Xion gravitated to the person who she didn’t know at all, the one who was obviously least comfortable to be here. 

“So,” she said casually, plopping down in the sand next to the younger version of Riku who had thankfully put on less comically edgy clothes, “what’s _your_ story? What’s your place in all this?” 

“I wish I knew,” he answered, and went on to give a general overview of his situation. Xion listened intently. A lot of it was familiar. 

“So now I’m just here, I guess,” he finished. “Riku convinced me to stay, but. Why?” 

“Why not?” 

He stared at her. “Aren’t you a Replica too? Or, you were? How did you become your own person?” 

“I became my own person by existing, Riku. I became who I am by choosing to be.” 

The boy was silent for a long time. 

“…But I don’t know who to _be!_ ” he wailed, drawing some attention which Xion waved off. 

Embarrassed, he spoke more quietly. “I can’t be _him._ That feels… wrong.” 

“But do you feel like _someone?_ ” 

“…Yeah, I guess. But. Not Riku. Or not exactly not Riku, just not…” 

Xion took a wild guess. Or maybe it wasn’t that wild. “You don’t feel like a boy.” 

His mouth fell open. “How did you…” 

“I was a Replica of a boy, Riku. I’m a girl. Do the math.” 

He did, visibly. “Oh. But… I don’t feel like a girl, either.” 

“Then don’t be either. Or be both. Or be one, if it suits you better down the road. It doesn’t matter. No one who matters is going to care, and if they do, they'll have me to deal with. But it won’t happen. I do get it, though. You were made as a… tool. So was I. But tools don’t think, don’t feel, and certainly don’t have hang-ups about gender. And if it’s a hang-up about gender that’s stopping you from feeling like you deserve to be a person, then tell gender to _go fuck itself._ ” 

Naminé was wandering away from the others, heading toward the shore. Xion decided to join her. Standing up, she gave her new friend a pat on the back. “There are weirder stories than yours in this circus. We have a magic talking duck, what’s a nonbinary clone?” 

The young Riku laughed. “Thanks, Xion.” 

  


“What _was_ that thing you did with Ventus?” 

The two of them were collecting seashells. It had come to Xion all at once, in a rush. Of course she’d really been to the beach before. She used to do exactly this in her limited spare time. How had she ever let anyone convince her that she wasn’t a person? _Things_ didn’t go mucking about in the sand looking for pretty objects. “Well. We’ve been the same person before. It’s sort of a controlled and balanced version of that. We’re a lot more powerful, and we remember… just about everything. It can be a bit too much to handle. But useful.” 

“Interesting.” Naminé sat down, inspecting the shells she’d picked up. “And can you only do it with Ventus, or…?” 

Xion sat down too, slowly processing what Naminé had just said. What her next question might be. “Why are you asking? And no, I don't think it's limited to us. Might be limited to _me_ , though.” 

“Just wondering.” 

That was a lie, and it was probably the first time Xion had been pleased to be lied to. Admittedly, it barely counted, since the liar had been intentionally transparent. 

Xion was distracted from the wave of excitement and happiness when Naminé focused on something behind her. The girl raised her hand to her mouth, eyes shining. Xion turned. 

Oh. Well how about that. Sora and Kairi were back. 

Except, she understood a moment later, they weren’t. Only one was. 

Xion’s other wasn’t anywhere nearby. She’d sense it if he was. What she was seeing right now… an echo? A vision? A projection of Kairi’s memory? She didn’t know. But Sora wasn’t here. She knew that. 

And when his form dissolved in the sunset, everyone else knew too. 

Xion sighed and looked mournfully at Naminé. “My other is an idiot.” 

Naminé giggled and stood up. Extending a hand, she asked, “So what are you going to do about it?” 

“Bring him home. Besides, I believe he still owes you something.” Xion took her hand and hauled herself to her feet. Reaching out, she summoned her Keyblade. 

Naminé looked thoughtful. “He has thanked me once or twice…” 

“Datascape or alt-timeline nonsense doesn’t count,” she responded as she inspected her weapon. Once, it had been identical to Ventus’s before he remembered himself. Identical to Sora’s. Even now, Xion bore a blade that Sora had wielded first. 

But it wasn’t Sora’s now, if it ever had been. And she wasn’t Sora now, if she ever had been. She was Xion. She’d made sure of that. And it was up to her to save that moron so he could finally, properly thank the girl who had looked after him for so long. He wasn’t going to get away with forgetting, even if she had to drag him out of oblivion herself. 

“Kairi!” She called as she approached the tree where the girl still sat, stunned by grief. Naminé followed behind her, smiling wider with every passing moment. Xion had conveniently forgotten to let go of her hand. 

The red-haired girl Xion so strongly resembled turned to face her, tears staining her cheeks. It took her a few tries to speak. “What… what is it Xion?” She saw who she was with, and brightened just a little… and then a little more when she glanced downwards. “Naminé! I’m so glad… you both made it…” 

She began to sniffle again. Xion gave her a nudge. “We’re not letting him get away with this. He doesn’t get to just die like that. Not after how hard we worked to revive him back then.” 

She felt Naminé squeeze her hand, and when she glanced back at the girl who was either already her girlfriend or was going to be _very soon_ , she nodded. Oh, good. She was on board. Xion didn’t think she’d have objected, but she didn’t have a Keyblade… wait. Kairi did, and Lea had learned easily enough, so… 

Huh. Well there was something for her to think about. Later, though. 

Xion brought herself back to the task at hand. Kairi was looking at her now, the faintest glimmers of hope on her face. “But… he’s _gone_.” 

“I’d know if he were really gone. I knew that you weren’t. I may be my own person, but he’s still my other half.” Kairi began to visibly shake. From what, Xion didn't know. “I can feel him, Kairi. He’s somewhere… somewhere damp and bright, I think.” 

Xion closed her eyes and focused, reaching out across the connection. Across worlds, across universes. It was weak, and so far away she didn’t have a hope of pulling him to her. But a shaky, grainy vision entered her mind of wet black asphalt and blinding city lights and a pale full moon… and Sora was there. He was unconscious. Asleep again. _Of course._ But wait, there was something else… 

There was another figure hovering above Sora’s prone form. A boy. A _winged_ boy who, even through the static, looked just _insufferably_ smug. Ha! Xion hadn’t been awake for that, but she’d seen it in his memory when she was pulled out of him back in the dream world. 

Xion opened her eyes and smiled. She had Kairi’s complete attention now, and she met her unsteady gaze. “I don’t know where he is,” Kairi’s burgeoning smile started to droop, “but I know who does.” It returned, brighter and stronger, her eyes lighting up. “And I know where _that_ person was not too long ago.” 

“Where?!” 

She laughed. “You should know how this works by now. Where else but Traverse Town? Come on, let’s go!” 

Kairi took her proffered hand, though only as long as it took to get down from the tree. She summoned her Keyblade, flowers springing into existence out of nothing, and then hesitated. “Thank you… you don’t have to come with me. Just tell me who to look for.” 

“We’re going, Kairi. _You’re_ coming with _us_.” 

“Why?” 

To hell with it. “Sora owes my girlfriend something.” 

Naminé laughed out loud, and Xion didn’t think she’d ever heard a more beautiful sound. Naminé didn’t say anything, just squeezed her hand again and then carefully laced her fingers in Xion’s. Xion didn’t dare look at her. She might just combust here and now if she did, and then who would rescue Sora? 

She really loved having a heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Months after conceiving of it, I am still growing more and more attached to the idea of fusion being Xion's signature power. I actually only just remembered Sora's Drive Form thing in KH2 as further justification for it while doing this POV conversion. Like. It works so fucking well on every level and I love it so much. Taking control of the ability granted to her by one who would use her as a mindless weapon and defeating him with it, side by side with his other most notable victim? That's the _good_ shit. I'll freely acknowledge that the memory thing is mostly just me being a filthy Homestuck, though. I wonder if anyone can find the absolutely horrendous HS joke I slipped in.


	4. A Single Day

It was a brief break in the chaos. It also happened to be one of Naminé’s bad days. 

They both had them, now and again. Xion would find bottomless despair or burning rage at the forefront of her being, and have to work to remind herself that while everything wasn’t perfect, she could be certain that she was her own person and that she deserved to exist. It wasn’t quite enough, sometimes. Darkness and sleep were never that far away, but that was part of living. She always found the dawn again. And she never had to do it alone. 

Naminé’s condition was harsher. Where her abilities had come from exactly, no one knew. Just like no one could quite explain Sora’s power to chase down hearts across worlds and recomplete them, or Xion’s to bring them forth and make them part of her. Even Riku’s near-immunity to darkness was totally unique to him, as far as anyone could tell. A piece of Terra had lived in a suit of armor for a decade. Ventus was a person with no darkness in his heart whatsoever, something Xion could believe but that so many would say is impossible. But the impossible, and even the ridiculous, was something all of them were used to. 

But Naminé… As she knew only too well, memory is a cruel thing. As time passed, Xion felt that even the healed scars of what she endured were beginning to fade. She had the privilege of forgetting. Naminé didn’t. She couldn’t. Not as a Nobody, and not as a Somebody. Her own pain, and that of so many others, stayed with her. 

It wasn’t hopeless. Keeping herself in the moment and focusing on her own memories was doable. It just took effort, and some days it took more effort than others. She’d said it had been getting easier to manage. Very, very slowly. 

Xion had an idea. It was something she’d put off trying, as initially, she’d thought it would only make it worse. Now, she wasn’t so sure that was true. Maybe it was worth the risk? 

Naminé was curled up, her head in Xion’s lap. Occasionally, she would flinch or shudder, and her girlfriend wondered whose memory, and of what, had just crossed her mind. When Sora lost Kairi the first time? When Xion felt Xemnas sink his claws into her being, making her into the puppet he wanted? Or Naminé’s own anguish as she was forced to do so much harm to two people who her Somebody loved so dearly? 

“Witch,” Xion said softly, and she stirred. It had been just “girl” for a while, based on what Xion’s panicked brain had spat out that day. But Naminé, while refusing to use a Keyblade for reasons she kept to herself, had taken to relying on elemental power. Xion had done so once, too, and of course Aqua was never out of reach. The Master was at her happiest when teaching. So, soon enough, “witch” it had become. 

“Xion?” No pet name for her could possibly match the simple joy she still felt at hearing her real name spoken out loud. 

“I think I might be able to help.” 

She opened her eyes, red-rimmed and weary. “How?” 

  


Naminé, too, had been apprehensive once Xion described the convergence of memory that occurred when she used this ability. They had quietly let the idea drop some time ago, and it hadn’t bothered either of them to do so. But when Xion timidly raised it again, as a possible if temporary solution to Naminé’s suffering, the girl seized onto it like a lifeline. 

“Yes. Yes, yes, yes.” 

At some level, this wasn’t how Xion wanted this to happen. She’d pictured some romantic, or possibly desperate, moment. But maybe this was both of those. It wasn’t the worst of Naminé’s days. It wasn’t the worst of Xion’s, either. Yet, there was a calm mundanity to it all that felt so precious. And no matter what, even if it became too much very quickly, there would be a perfect instant for Naminé to remember forever. Xion gave her girlfriend the briefest of kisses on the forehead, and then concentrated. 

Moments later, a girl named Xiné drew her first breaths. 

They were shaky ones. Much faster than it had for Veion- likely due to Naminé’s influence- her mind had begun to open up to the possibilities. And they were blinding. She shut her eyes, for all the good it did. 

She almost parted right away. Naminé couldn’t handle this. 

But she could, a piece of her insisted. The instant Xiné understood that she was _only_ Xion and Naminé, that the traumas belonging to her friends had been left behind, she knew what to do. 

It was simple. Naminé couldn’t lock away her own excess recollections without wiping out the same experiences for other people. But the roads not taken had no people walking down them, or at least, none Xiné could reach. So, carefully and precisely, she went about breaking the links in the chains of memory. 

Gradually, the pressure lessened. What had started as a splitting- quite literally- headache dwindled to almost nothing. And eventually, she was left with just… her. The core of her being. Who Naminé was, and who Xion was. And who they were together, as Xiné. That was it. No more, and no less. 

She wasn't at all what either Naminé or Xion had expected. The first had believed, despite what Xion had said, that she would have an independent voice. And while sometimes thoughts seemed to come from one side or another, this was not the case. Xiné was one person, and right now, Naminé did not exist. And Xion… she had only done this with one other person before and had made assumptions based on that. Ventus was, though he only had some vague awareness of it in his normal state, a very old soul. He had seen and done so much more than Xion, and as Veion, his being overshadowed hers. Xion hadn’t had any way to recognize that. But Xion and Naminé had existed for about the same amount of time, and Xiné was far more balanced. 

But the real difference was that the bonds between Ventus and Xion were so deeply unlike those between Xion and Naminé. The first were forged of camaraderie, of combat, a being brought forth to strike down a mutual foe. Veion was brash, and powerful, and wielded their combined fury against the injustice in the world. But Xiné… Xiné had been created because Xion couldn’t stand to see Naminé hurting. She had been allowed to be thanks to Naminé’s trust in Xion. Xiné was calm, and ordinary, and peaceful. 

She was a being of love. Xion’s and Naminé’s, yes, but not only the feelings they had for each other. There was more than enough room in their hearts for others, too. And unlike either of them, Xiné could admit it to herself. She couldn’t not. It defined who she was. 

Naminé harbored a small flame for Riku, and even a confused, guilty one for his other self. But both would need time. Riku, to finally sort out his situation with Sora and Kairi. And his former Replica, to catch up and figure out who they wanted to be. 

Whereas Xion would be lying if she said she hadn’t found Aqua to be, in a word, breathtaking. Maybe in a few years. 

Years… she had years. _Decades._

Well, Xiné specifically might not. She wasn’t going to be herself forever, no part of her wanted that. But Xion and Naminé did have all that time. Xiné loved them, and herself, with all her hearts. 

There was one piece of linked memory she had kept, and that was because it was the same memory over and over and over again. No matter how wildly things diverged, no matter how screwy the timeline, Xion and Naminé _had still ended up next to each other on that beach._ Sometimes, it had been their first time speaking since Xion had left the mansion to face Axel a lifetime ago. Sometimes, others had joined them. But there was no scenario where the two of them hadn’t been drawn to each other. Holding onto that was worth having to take a moment to remember which instance belonged to her. 

Xiné recalled that there was something she wanted to do. A part of her had been waiting for this occasion for a long time. 

Raising her left hand, she summoned Naminé’s Keyblade. Of course she had one. She supposed it had originally been just a copy of Kairi’s, but this one was truly hers now. 

Opening her eyes, Xiné saw herself clutching a glossy, translucent crystalline weapon. Swirling designs reminiscent of flowers echoed her other's, but every blossom was pale as ice, as white as the corridors of Castle Oblivion. It was lit from within by faint arcs of blue light, flaring into view and then out again. It was beautiful. 

And then she let it vanish. Naminé had wanted to share the moment with Xion, but there was nothing to fight here. This was an interlude, a brief period of peace in the chaos that ruled the lives of the defenders of light. 

Xiné let herself be. 

  


Some time later, for no particular reason, Xion and Naminé were two people again. They turned towards each other, three words echoing in their minds. 

They didn’t need to say it. They had just experienced it. But there was one thing Xiné couldn’t do, that the two of them could. 

It wasn’t their first kiss. That had happened moments after Xion had first called Naminé her girlfriend. She’d started to head back to the others, to let them know where the three of them were going, and the moment Xion faced her Naminé had taken the initiative. Maybe it hadn’t been the _best_ time, but it had gotten a laugh out of a still-shaky Kairi, and a certain amount of cheering from the beach. 

It wasn’t their second, either. Or their third. Xion had lost track, though certainly Naminé hadn’t. She couldn’t. That, at least, was probably something she didn’t mind. 

It wasn’t particularly exceptional. No fireworks, no triumphant music, no sudden, magical healing. That’s not how life works. As they separated, Xion saw that Naminé was still tired. The memories had come back, and these she couldn’t cut herself away from without harming others. It was still going to be a day spent in the calm and quiet, letting the bad times run their course. But this had helped. 

Tomorrow would be another day. Xion and Naminé had so many to look forward to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't originally intended to be a Namixi fic. It kind of happened on accident. But a happy accident, I think.


End file.
